The Freebird Club: A Global Social Community Connecting Travelers and Locals with Peter Mangan🌐💖

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast. Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani.

Well, hello to all of our listeners joining us today on our podcast. You're listening to one of our Successful Aging episodes this month on the Living to 100 Club program, and I'm your host, Joe Casciani. On each program, our conversations educate and inspire, helping you get the best out of all the years we're given, regardless of what obstacles come our way. You can learn more about our club at our website. Be sure to take a look at my new training and activities manual, Better, Longer, and Happier: A Guide to Aging with Purpose and Positivity. This is a series of 12 modules in a card deck format developed for activities directors at senior living communities. Visit the website livingto100.club/blh. Now on to our podcast. On today's Living to 100 Club program, our guest is Peter Mangan, founder of Freebird Club. Freebird is a growing social and travel community for those 50 and over. Members can connect, share travel tips, arrange meetups, serve as local hosts in their own cities, and book homestays with other host members. We learned from our guests the ways that Freebird enables people to travel, connect, meet, and stay with one another as members of a trusted membership community. Why are seniors so inclined to travel more than ever? How can someone book friendly stays while traveling? Tune in for this story about the birth of the Freebird Club, how it was inspired, imagined, and shaped. First, a little background. The Freeburg Club story began in beautiful County Kerry, Ireland, when founder Peter Mangan started renting out his country cottage to visitors from around the world. While Peter was away working in Dublin, his retired and widowed father Owen was on hand to meet and greet the guests. At this stage in his life, Owen had more time on his hands. Sometimes he felt too much time. Meeting new people in this way was an enjoyable outlet for him generally, but when a series of older adults came to stay, something special happened. There were nights out in the local pub, sightseeing trips, dinners, games of golf, all with Owen at the helm. Fun was being had and friendships formed that went way beyond the usual host-guest interaction. Seeing the enriching social benefits his father was now enjoying with traveling peers, Peter was inspired to try and replicate these life-enhancing experiences for the benefit of older adults everywhere. Peter, welcome to our program today.

Thanks very much, Joe. It's a pleasure to be speaking to you.

Great. You're most welcome. I always like to open by asking our guests to tell us a little bit about the story, the journey that brought you to where you are today. I touched on some of it. What are the highlights? What stands out that brought you to where you are today?

Well, it's actually quite a long journey because I originally had the idea for Freebird Club back in 2014, 2015, actually. And at the time, I was working in university. I was a senior manager for research and innovation at University College Dublin. And, you know, I was around, I was around research and I was around innovation, spinouts and all of that. So I was aware of, of what's possible in terms of taking an idea, whether it's in the lab or in your own head, into fruition through the entrepreneurial route. And I suppose that was in the background. But really, I had no burning desire to be an entrepreneur or a startup founder. But I was, I guess, open to the prospect of if the right idea came along that I would, you know, I'd be willing to go for it. And so, yeah, around this time, my dad, who was a retired widower living alone, I was noticing that he, you know, he was in his early 70s and he was, the world was getting a bit smaller for him and he wasn't exactly thriving in the way he used to. And, uh, that was just a general observation, I guess. And I suppose there's an element of, of concern with that, but, you know, he, he was, he was generally fine. He wasn't even saying he was lonely. He was just— he would complain of being bored a lot. He was— he had been a very busy vet, and, uh, and, you know, as he was retiring now and, and his world got a bit smaller, he— as, as you, you covered there, he's— he had a lot of time on his hands, and it didn't really sit Anyway, so yeah, when I started renting out the house and discovered Airbnb and all of that, I just saw my dad come to life, particularly when there were guests of a similar vintage to him. And he, he actually had been a fairly good traveler, but he wasn't that interested in traveling anymore. But he loved meeting new people. And he loved meeting new people in his own backyard because he was such a proud Kerryman. That's, that's the area of Ireland we're from. And he loved showing people who were visiting the area his favorite spots and telling them about the history and the, you know, the wonderful scenery of the area and showing them and bringing them around and, you know, showing them some of the culture through the local music and things like that. He just loved that. And so I saw something unfold. I mean, I don't want to repeat the story, but I saw something unfold for him personally that was really enriching his life. And it was the social connections. The travel and tourism just happened to be the catalyst. That was what was happening in the background. We're having people, different parts of the world, different parts of Ireland, coming to stay in the house. And when, as I say, particularly people of a similar age to himself, just the social interaction really took off. And it was doing great things for him, gave him a new sense of purpose, spring in his step, getting him out and about, you know, visiting some beautiful scenic areas that he hadn't been to in 25 or 30 years himself, and doing it as something of a guide, really. And then on the other side, the, the older adult guests who were having this kind of interaction with my dad as a local were just saying that this is, this is the best part of their trip, you know. They absolutely loved that aspect. And, uh, I don't think it was— of course it was flattering to hear that about my dad, but I think I— for me, I was seeing that there's something here, uh, that probably ties into the, the additional, or the, the need, I guess, for social connection in my dad's case, there was a, you know, there had been a, I suppose, I suppose a certain lack of it in recent times. Sure, it was really benefiting from having these new experiences. But even the traveling older, it was many older couples, they weren't really traveling with family. You know, they were, I think they really relished it. And they saw they got added value from it in a way that I don't want to say younger people wouldn't, but I just saw something in the demographic that was kind of resonant of issues of loneliness and need for more connections. And I thought, okay, there's something here that if we could, you know, we were, I suppose, using an Airbnb type model, really, they were coming to stay as guests in, in a house, and my dad being the local was the person to, to connect with them. But I just thought if you could build a club, where the whole point of it was the social connections and, and the accommodation, the homestays were just, was just an enabler. Or a catalyst that you could do something amazing for older people in terms of positive aging, healthy aging. And of course, you're staying with travel and tourism. It probably could— you could make travel and tourism more accessible to older people because there's a lot of people who'd love to travel but don't because they don't have a companion or maybe they lack the confidence to just put a bag on their back, so to speak, and head off. But if you could connect them to locals and fellow travelers who were like-minded, they could empower each other, they could enable each other. And before you know it, you could have a movement, you know, a senior movement, if you like, of older people traveling and embracing travel and tourism in ways that they possibly hadn't done ever, or maybe hadn't done in years because they've tapped into the peer group.

Yeah.

And so that's what Fribourg Club really is. You know, there are elements to it, but really it's about creating a club for older people. We say it's over 50s, but typically it's, it's, it's 60 plus. And the sweet spot is people in retirement because they have time to enjoy and embrace this, this kind of lifestyle. And it really is a club for those kind of people to find each other, to empower each other, to connect, to plan trips together, you know, getting advice and recommendations and the kind of thing that goes into planning a trip, to actually meet up if and when they take a trip. You know, there's nothing like meeting locals when you, when you travel to really get a much more enriching and rewarding experience. And of course, then the Airbnb type model, the homestay, where you could stay with other members if they have a spare room and they're looking to make it available. So, so that's what we set out to do with Freebird Club.

Yeah, yeah, great story. That's a great story. So you saw the positive effects on your father and his reconnecting, re-engaging, and showing off his County Kerry. And then the guests, where you saw the benefit, the spin-off for them as well. So why Freebird? Where does that name come from? I mean, is it that obvious? Just helping people who want to be free?

Yeah, there's a few elements to it actually. And it's a very good question. So originally, when I started on this journey, I was in a kind of a boot camp for ideas to do with positive aging. In fact, I won a place in what was called the Impact Hub Fellowship for Longer Lives. And it was a 3-month program that you had to be selected for. To explore and expand on ideas to address the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly aging society. And with Freebird Club, with the very early stage idea, I got into that. Anyway, I was getting mentored and coached in terms of how to bring this to life and a business plan and all the rest of it. And as part of that, I had some focus group sessions with an aging charity in London, and they had a few centers around the city. And so I was basically out road testing the concept at the very earliest stage. And I was calling it Silver Sharers as a kind of a draft name. And the older adults I was presenting this to were not a fan of that name. They basically were saying, you know, enough of this silver nonsense, you know. And particularly one woman said to me, you know, look around, we dye our hair for a reason. So don't remind, don't remind us of the gray hair, the silver hair, you know, come up with something that's a bit more inspiring and dynamic and makes us feel more youthful, whatever. So I went away and did my homework. And I came back with the Freebird Club. And the idea behind that is, you know, all other things being equal, if you have reasonable health, and still are open to new opportunities, new, new possibilities, you know, the reality is at this stage in your life, if you're retired, you're probably, you're probably free of the kids, if you had kids, you're probably free of the job or getting close to to being free of the job and the responsibilities go with that. You might even be free of the mortgage. There's an awful lot of freedom in later life if, if all other things being equal, you know, you're in, you're able to enjoy it. And so I wanted to kind of tap into that, that kind of that ethos, if you like. And also, you know, the Freebird is a great rock and roll song from an old band, a US band, Lynyrd Skynyrd. And it's about life on the road and taking, you know, embracing the open road. And there's a, there's a little bit of rock and roll in Freebird Club, you know, it's a case of, you know, let the wind in your hair and, you know, spread your wings and all of that stuff. Um, and also, you know, the— I'm probably going into too much detail here, but the, the birds, uh, the bird, um, connotation there as well. You know, the reality is the empty nest syndrome is, is, is, is a very interesting, um, aspect to what we're trying to do with Freebird Club. Most of the spare rooms that exist, I would say, anywhere in any country are in the homes of older adults, you know, where people have— their families have flown the nest or whatever, and they're largely untapped. Most of those never end up on Airbnb, or, you know, they're— you know, there's often a bit of pressure to downsize, in fact, which is another story. But I just felt the name really represented the kind of community we're trying to build, the ethos and the spirit of adventure. And yeah. Yeah, I want it to be a club. I don't, I don't want it just to be another website or an app or anything like that. I really want to tap into the old school club mentality, the collegiality, the, you know, the sense of community.

Yeah. And so a lot of, a lot of dimensions to that name Freebird. I, I, yeah, I can appreciate. And, you know, I, as you know, I have the Living to 100 Club, which is kind of a similar model. There's no dues, it's not a membership per se, but it's just this kind of common mindset, common orientation about, you know, the open doors that lie ahead. So yeah, you're doing the same thing.

Yeah.

So, um, you know, you touched on this, um, when you're describing the kind of progression there, but older adults, their, their lives can be kind of, um, one of retreat in many cases. I mean, certainly you know, recovering from the pandemic. It's not as bad as it was 4 years ago, but there's still that sense of retreat and pulling back. And I won't say isolation, that's more extreme, but kind of pulling back and disengaging, disconnecting. So you're, you're really trying to tap into that, trying to reach the people that— and maybe help them turn that around, start to re-engage, reconnect. Is that Is that part of the focus there, the highlight?

Definitely. I mean, it's, I hate to say it, it is a feature of older age that people tend to withdraw. Even the word retirement, you know, it kind of has a connotation of backing off, I guess. And as you say, you know, yeah, what we really want to do in withdrawal and retreating, and we want to we want to show people a different way that, you know, if you have the inclination, there's a lot of other people out there who you can connect with, who can help inspire you, and you can inspire each other. And we really want to, I suppose, change the narrative around aging. It's not all about decline.

Yeah.

We know people are living longer, they're living healthier longer. That's a great thing. And it needs— we need to find more ways to, um, I suppose mobilize and, and inspire people to enjoy that and embrace it. And, uh, so it's— yeah, we're trying to tap into a new way of thinking, really. And there are some amazing people out there who are just, you know, you know, setting the bar in terms of how to live your life in your 70s and your 80s. And I'm not just talking about people running marathons and doing extraordinary things like that, just you know, traveling, meeting new people, trying, starting new hobbies and education, taking on new courses. And it's really, you know, it's really trying to catch that wave and try and expand that spirit of openness to new ideas and new possibilities. And we just happen to be, you know, hanging our hat on the travel and tourism aspect of that. But it's really part of a bigger movement, I suppose. And you're, you know, what you're doing with the Living to 100 Club is exactly the same thing, just really trying to get the positive aspect out there of aging and why it isn't about, it doesn't have to be about retreat and withdrawal.

Yeah. Yeah, that's right, dude. Thank you. Yeah, that whole stereotype of decline and helplessness and, you know, withdrawal, that's evaporating, fortunately. So we're seeing the whole whole new upside to aging, things to celebrate rather than to dread, right? So yes, Freebird Club is, is, uh, riding that, and I think that's beautiful. That's great. So, um, you have a few different groups with, um, Freebird, the travelers, you have the locals, and you have the homestay hosts. Can you tell us about those three groups?

Yeah, those are, I suppose, 3 different types of users. But the reality is what we're trying to create is a persona of a freebird who ideally would be all 3. And, but I don't, I don't, I don't want to muddy the water. So you're— let's stick with that.

Yeah.

So if you join Freebird Club with a view to travel, and we call you a freebird traveler in this context, you know, the idea is you'd be, you could have a trip in mind, or you aspire to take a trip, you can reach out to other members in the, in a destination you're interested in visiting, or people possibly who've been there, or even want to go there and maybe get tips, advice, recommendations, maybe even a travel buddy. So that's one use case. And we call that the Freebird Traveller. The Freebird Local is somebody who was a bit like my dad, is very keen to help and advise people who might be interested in visiting their area by giving out their insights and showing off their local knowledge and giving out recommendations to help others plan and realize their trip ambition. And also very importantly, because we do want real-life meetups to happen, it's not, it's not just an online, you know, information exchange platform. The idea of actually arranging meetups irrespective now of homestay accommodation, but arranging meetups. So if you're having a, you know, an interaction with a local member that the idea You know, when you're planning a trip, the ideal thing would be that, you know, you'd meet if and when you take that trip to that area. And it might be just for a cup of coffee, or the, the local in that context might show you around, or you might, you might have, um, similar interests. You might go to a ball game or, or go to a museum or whatever it might be. Because all Freebirds, by the way, all members have, have fairly rich profiles describing themselves, their interests, their preferences, and all of that. And we're hoping to get to a stage where we can recommend people to each other. Based on common interests and that because that makes people, I guess, more likely to want to meet up and ideally do things together. And then the third bit, then the homestay host, that's somebody who is a Freebird member who is making a spare room available in their home to host members to stay with them. And it's very important to draw the line there. It's not like Airbnb where you can just, if you have a, you know, if you have a property somewhere, you put it on and people can stay there for a fee and you don't even have to be there at all. That's the antithesis of Freebird Club. It is always a hosted property insofar as you're staying with the host. So it's a spare room in somebody's house, um, rather than a vacant, you know, vacant accommodation. Um, but what I was saying at the start of all that is, you know, every traveler is a local at home. So by default, we want everyone who might be travel-oriented who joins Freebird Club to be a local in the equation as well. So if anyone, you know, they they're, they're living somewhere. So by being from that place, they're a local that can make themselves available to travelers to give the advice and recommendations. Hopefully, if they've time, make themselves available for a meetup if somebody's visiting the area, traveling in the area. And then there will only be a subset, I guess, who will be able to host others in their home via accommodation. But the perfect freebird is— perfect freebird member would be all three of those.

Yeah, yeah.

There's no, there's no pressure that we don't want pressure on it. We just want to create an ethos of, of giving and receiving. Because as you can imagine, if everybody just wants to use Freebird Club to get advice, to get locals to show them around, to get locals to host them, then it won't work. You know, you have to give. You'd be willing to reciprocate by giving advice about your local area, by, by possibly willing to— being willing to meet up if people would— they're visiting and, and you have time and that kind of thing. So, Stephanie, there's a culture we're trying to create within the club.

So you're You don't want people to be kind of locked into just one of those three definitions. Ideally, they'll kind of— you can dissolve some of those boundaries and let people— so it can be more fluid, moving—

exactly, exactly—

a different position. Sure.

Now maybe the homestay host is a bit more fixed because that is a very, you know, you might even be joining Freebird Club with the intention of hosting because you can make some money from your spare room. You know, there is that financial element to it as well. But in general, the idea of, you know, Am I a traveler or a local? We want to— we do want that to be fluid because every traveler is a local where they live, and we just want to make sure that people feel that and join with that kind of openness in mind. That's how the club will really succeed, I believe.

Yeah. So I understand the kind of philosophy, the kind of environment that you're building, you're creating. What are the advantages that members get? Or, you know, the— what does Freebird offer to people who want to be a part of this program?

Yeah, so by joining, they become part of the community, and, uh, they create a profile, uh, where they describe themselves, their interests, their preferences, etc., and they can connect with others, um, who also have profiles, etc. We are going to— we're developing a system now where if, say, for example, you're visiting a certain area, we can recommend people, locals in that area to you who have similar interests, similar profiles. We call it the compatibility index, such that these are really— these would be really valuable people to connect with when you're planning your trip. And also, as I say, if you're interested in meeting up with some locals, these are people you're likely to get on well with, we would hope. Um, so there, there's a proactive aspect to that, you know. Um, and I suppose the, the real benefit, the biggest benefit of Freiburg Club, uh, is I guess for people who'd like to travel but they don't have a travel companion, or they might be a little bit short on confidence. By connecting them with other members of the community in this way, um, we like to think we are making travel more realistic, more realizable. And through that, people are doing things that they may not otherwise do— travel, new people. They can also— what does it offer? Well, the homestay host, if they have a spare room, they can make that room available. They can make— obviously, they can enjoy hosting people and the connection that and the cultural exchange that's involved in that. But they can also charge a rate per night so they can monetize that spare room as well. But there's a bigger thing at play here as well. We now have a kind of a social networking aspect to Freebird Club where everything I've kind of described to you there, Joe, so far is kind of a one-to-one connection. Okay, if I'm interested in taking a trip somewhere, I connect with a local or maybe a couple of locals there, but it'd be one-to-one kind of messaging. I'd be making those contacts. We have now created a kind of a social community portal where you can have collective conversations with people, you can share questions within a group context, you can, you can ask tips of the group, or ask for advice collectively now. And there's also an image gallery where members share their travel photographs and things like that. But we also have webinars and events. We just launched a Chat with Local series where is somebody, you know, voluntarily, we go out to the community, as you know, we just recently did, for example, with Northern Ireland. And we've, we've somebody now in Portugal as well, who's willing to talk, give a Q&A, a bit of a presentation, and a Q&A in their local area. And, you know, that's, that's effectively a Zoom call, but it's open to the group. And you could have 70 or 80 people tuning into that. And there's a collective experience there that's happening online. We're also hoping to do the kind of in-person group meetups in certain locations where we, we might have a critical mass. And these are likely to be cities in the, in the, in the short term, because we don't yet have a huge spread of free birds internationally. But there's a few cities where we now have a, you know, a nice cohort of members. And so we'd have in-person meetups so that locals from that city can meet and as a group, and also obviously traveling members who might be there at the time encouraged to go along to that as well. So we really want to create these these kind of group experiences as well to complement what was originally kind of a one-to-one. You know, I'd reach out to you, I might meet you, I might stay with you if you're a host, but that's one-to-one. We want to, and we want to open up the group dynamic as well. So that's kind of an exciting next chapter for us. We just started on that, actually.

Oh, that's good. Yeah, that's nice, nice growth. That's a nice direction. So what are the popular destinations? What, what are people drawn to?

Yeah, well, we've members now in 37 countries, but a few countries only literally have a handful of people. But the big ones would be Ireland, UK, the US has about 45% of our members are in the US. And it really could spread across the states. But of course, Florida would be well represented there, particularly California as well. Portugal, in terms of the non-English speaking countries, then Portugal is featuring prominently. Wonderful destination. I've been there many times and the Portuguese are great, great people and great culture, etc. So that's, that's proven to be a very popular destination for our members. But also we have a nice, a nice membership base in Portugal as well, Portuguese people. Italy, France, South Africa. They'd probably be the top countries at the moment. Yeah, and Spain, of course, Spain as well.

Oh, wow.

And a lot of expats, you know, because we're, I suppose we're starting as an English-speaking, English-language platform. But you have the capacity to translate it now into all the different main languages. But I suppose there's still a higher propensity for English speakers to be joining. And in that context, we have a lot of expats who are in some of the lovely foreign countries in Europe, the Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

Portugal.

So we're trying to, you know, we're trying to get beyond any language barriers. You don't need to speak English. Obviously, we encourage people to highlight any languages that they speak on their profile, even if it's school level. You know, it doesn't take much to have a, you know, fairly rudimentary conversation, a bit of a— well, you know, I've had extraordinary conversations with people whose language I don't speak at all. And we don't want to be shy about that. So we encourage them to, you know, if they do have school-level French or Spanish or German, don't be afraid to dust it off. And so key elements of people's profiles.

And that's good. So if someone has some space in their home, a guest room, how could they make it available to you, to Freebird Club?

Well, they first would have to become a member. Um, that's— there's a bit of a process to becoming a member. Um, you know, you, you sign up initially, you provide your contact details, you, you write the profile about yourself. Um, you— that we do have a membership fee, a modest membership fee, um, an annual fee. Uh, at the moment it's actually pay as you wish because it's, it's early days for Freebird Club and we don't want price to be a barrier. So right now people can join for anything between €1 and €100, or $1, $100, depending where you're from. But it's— so there's a membership fee to join. We feel that's a very important aspect as well, because there is an ID verification process involved. You have to upload a copy of your driver's license or your passport, because in order to open the one-to-one messaging or enable people to book homestays or become homestay hosts, we do need to verify who they are. We need to have that sense of trust and authenticity in terms of of, you know, the members and the membership interactions.

Did you say 90 days? Did you say 90 days for verification?

Oh, no, no, I didn't say any what days.

No, no, just days. 90 days. How long to verify?

Oh, no, it only takes a day. Less than a day, typically.

Yeah. Okay.

No, so I guess you probably heard me say IDs. My Irish accent maybe was—

No, no, no. Okay, sorry. Yeah.

So people have to upload a copy of their ID, we verify it, we approve manually, then it comes through to one of the team and we approve the membership application, usually within a day. But the payment as well is important. Because just by paying, by going through a process, there's, there's, there's an ID-based payment system that based on a credit card or a debit card, or PayPal, that gives an extra layer of verification of the person. And it also, it's It's important that it kind of draws a line in terms of being a benign, if you like, barrier to entry that makes sure that bad actors and, you know, rogue accounts aren't created. Sure. Which is very important again for underpinning the sense of trust, security, and safety within the community. But we, you know, we don't want price to be a barrier and we want to keep it modest in that context. And and yet optimized for the trust and authenticity of the membership in the community. Well, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, just to finish. Yeah, so that's the process. They have to become a member first. I just explained that. But then once they're a member, they just have to upload, create a listing of their, of their home and their spare room. They just take photographs, they put a description of their, of their home where it is. They do need to show some proof of address, because again, that's part of a verification process. And then create a— basically set a price per night.

We—

again, that comes through to us in the back end of the system, and if everything looks okay, we approve it, and then it becomes bookable for other members.

And when people are on your site, they can search for the destinations they're interested in, and they can book through you?

Exactly, yeah. Yeah, cool.

Good.

So there's, you know, there's calendar and they can see what's available. And we don't yet have a lot of homestays, but that's something we're working on. The homestay booking aspect is a little bit basic at the moment. It's kind of the next on our technological roadmap is to really improve the user experience around the booking of the homestay. But it is working. You can actually upload and you can book a homestay. You can upload your room and create your listing right now and you can book. Homestays with other members. But as I say, we just don't have a lot of homestay choice just yet, but we're working on that.

Yeah. So tell us about your typical travelers. Who— what's the profile? I mean, there's a big variety, I'm sure, but who are the typical travelers?

Yeah, so I'd say the classic persona right now is I would say female, uh, 70, just over 70% of our members are female. Um, a lot of them are, are solo, I guess. They're, you know, we could see from their profiles, yeah, they, they describe themselves that they might be divorced or, or widowed or, or just tending to, to travel solo for whatever reason and looking to find others, you know, others like them.

Sure.

On their, on their travels. And they are, they seem to be very adventurous in terms of looking for new experiences, looking for new destinations, far-flung places. India is a very popular destination we're finding. But they, they would be, I suppose, mostly in their 60s. That would be, I'm trying to find where the median is, and I would say it's probably in the 60s. So they would be probably recently retired, relatively recently retired. And yeah, looking to find their tribe, I think, is the main thing.

Sure. And there's— go ahead.

No, I would also— I'm just trying to remember the kind of the typical profiles. You know, a lot of them would be coming from kind of interesting backgrounds in terms of the careers they've had. And, you know, the— I won't— I don't want to say educational backgrounds, but people do describe themselves and, you know, their experience and what they've done in the past. And a lot of them would have grown-up children, and they might be living abroad and things like that. So, Stephanie, there's an appetite, I would say, to see new places, particularly places they haven't been, or revisit places that they might have seen many, many years ago. Some of them are visiting family members abroad. A lot of Irish people particularly tend to have family in Australia and the US and things like that. And, you know, pivoting off that to do that, you know, maybe visit some family and then, and then go off and do their own thing. You know, it was part of a wider trip. A lot of Americans coming to Europe and in a few different countries and, you know, looking for touchpoints in those countries, connecting with locals or meeting fellow travelers or having stays, booking those homestays with, with local members as well.

Now, do you help with, um, uh, transportation? Do you help to book, um, local trips, or—

We don't get into that aspect of things at all, but it's something we're looking to do by way of partnerships. So we haven't got to this stage yet, but the idea of having partnerships with tour operators, um, organizations that do organize the trips, the transport, and even accommodation. Because by the way, if you're a traveler with Freiburg Club, you don't need to necessarily stay in a homestay. You could be staying in a hotel, of course, and you could connect with members outside of the accommodation. But we're looking to explore that option. In fact, we had— we recently had a webinar, very recently, with Road Scholar. Would you be familiar with Road Scholar?

Oh, I know it well. Yeah, they're coming on my program in a couple weeks.

Fantastic. Yeah. So they did a webinar, kind of, we did it, we, you know, co-hosted a webinar with them, and it was an introduction to Road Scholar. And Road Scholar is educational trips for groups of older adults. So it's a, it's a very good, um, there's a very good synergy there in terms of what we're trying to promote and, and encourage it with Freebird Club and what they're doing, which is, you know, the educational aspect aligned with travel. And so We don't, we don't have an official partnership or anything with them. But it's an example of where if you were a member of Freebird Club, you could be introduced to group travel opportunities that you could possibly book by way of your membership, possibly get a discount by way of being a member of Freebird Club. And there might be, you know, a streamlined way of booking through Freebird as well. That's kind of further down the road for us. We haven't, we haven't activated those kind of partnerships yet. But we're very keen to do that.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I can see the upside to that. But you're also kind of well-informed about what's going on locally, so you can also recommend to your travelers the local events, um, concerts, things, trips, and a lot of that. So I'm just thinking about all of the, the education, the information, but you also provide a certain amount of security and safety, I think, for the travelers who might be very reluctant to do this on their own. But if they're part of a group where there's the vetting and the security and the reassurance, I can see that that's a real advantage. That's a real attraction.

Yeah, that— I mean, it has to be that sense of— there's no— I mean, there's only so much one can do. But by— I've kind of went into a fair bit of detail of the onboarding process when members are— when people are registering to become members of Freebird Club. To an extent, it works against us because there's the different steps and there's the ID verification and there's the, you know, the payment aspect, and there's creation of the profile and validating, you know, contact details and all that kind of stuff. There isn't vetting, by the way. There isn't any police vetting. We don't go into that territory. That would be too off-putting. But, you know, there's a little bit of a chore involved in becoming a Freebird Club member, and we do lose people on the way because there's maybe too much friction in the process. But we it, it kind of, you know, it's an important thing to maintain even if there's a trade-off there. You know, we have to just for, for anyone really, but for particularly I think the older demographic, there has to be an extra layer of, of security and safety built into the model that makes them feel more confident, reassured. Because as I say, at our best, what we're trying to do at Freebird Club is empower people to take trips, to connect with others in ways that they may not otherwise do. So we need to be the mobilizing force that gets them out of the comfort zone, you know, through the barrier to actually take, take a chance and embrace new experiences with new people and new adventures and all of that. And so you can't— there's a responsibility to that as well. And you can't do that without doing your damnedest to make sure that the community and the people they might meet through the community are as genuine and authentic as we can justifiably make sure they are, basically.

Sure. Yeah. Well, thanks so much, Peter. This has been very useful. I can see you're a good spokesperson for your company. I mean, you take it to heart and you put a lot of value on the offerings that you provide. I can see that. Yeah, that's great.

Thank you very much. It's, yeah, it's something I'm very passionate about. I think there's something, you know, we're still, you know, I work and live in the startup world now, even though the purpose of this and the focus is about positive aging and empowering older people and all of that. But, you know, we're in the early stage startup scene, and it's challenging. We have to deal with all kinds of things like getting investment and, and making sure we, um, we have all the technical features in place and all of that. But I do believe that the, the market for this and the need for something like this is, is, is, is absolutely there. It's, it's, uh, it's something that has huge potential. And I think if we get it right, I think it could be amazing. Um, and so I'm very focused on that. I'm very passionate about trying to make it, make it happen and, and, uh, and to spread the word, spread the wings of Free Bird Club globally. So And thank you so much for the opportunity to speak about it today.

Yeah, you're very welcome, you're very welcome. Um, keep up the good work. So how can people learn more about Freebird Club? What's the website?

I would send them straight to freebirdclub.com. That's our website, and, uh, hopefully we have laid out all the requisite information fairly clearly there. But, uh, they can also contact us via hello@thefreebirdclub.com. @freebirdclub.com email. That again is, is of course listed on the website.

That's a good email address. And hello@freebirdclub.com. Okay, well, it looks like we're outta time, but before we wrap up, I just wanna remind my listeners to visit my website, livingto100.club, sign up for my email list and download a free copy of my 9 Tips to Make Living Longer Enjoyable. And if you're affiliated with a senior living setting, Be sure to look for my new training and activity guide, Better, Longer, and Happier. Peter, thanks so much for being a guest on our show. People can get more information at freebirdclub.com, and they can send an email to hello@freebirdclub.com.

It's actually just on that— hello@thefreebirdclub.com.

Oh, the free bird. Hello at Uh, freebirdclub.com.

Okay, the website is just freebirdclub.com. Okay, thanks again, Joe. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, no, it was fun. It was fun. Yeah, thanks very much, and thanks to all of our listeners. Hope to see you next time.