Paradise Perspectives
Are you done playing small? Tired of fear, doubt, and everyone’s expectations running your life?
From the Caribbean to women everywhere, this is raw, unfiltered talk about finding your courage, owning your voice, and taking back your power when life tries to keep you quiet.
Every Thursday I drop the truth, tools, and straight-up no-BS conversations you need to rise and create the life you want.
At the end of the day, Paradise isn’t a place. It’s a mindset. And it's about time you claim yours.
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Paradise Perspectives
Taking the Plunge, Bingo Cards, and Finding Creativity in Paradise with Charlotte Jackson
Two island girls trade DMs for a deep, energizing talk on fear, perfectionism, and choosing to just begin. Charlotte shares how surf, bingo, and a single lens got her creative life in photography moving, and why small wins and taking action matter most.
Where to find Charlotte on Instagram: @capturedxcharlotte
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Is this thing on? Hey, hey, hey, and welcome back to another really amazing episode of Paradise Perspectives. I'm your host, Ristelle, and I can can I just say that I am so happy to be here with you and to have this conversation that we're about to have. In the studio with me today is a good friend of mine. It actually is an Insta friend. We met over Instagram through her sister, who I met personally, but she and I, the person who we are talking to today, she and I have never met before. Not in real life, anyway. We met and then we started our conversation, and our friendship grew over Instagram. That is the part of social media that I absolutely love, by the way. It's how it connects you with people and sometimes like-minded people that become friends over years and years. And I guess that's the social part of social media. Anyways, so we are talking to this friend. This is a woman who I met about seven, eight years ago, who, at the point where I met her, was very shy, a little timid into doing what she wanted to do. She had a lot of reservations, a lot of fears, a lot of excuses. Now, does that sound familiar? Definitely, this is a talk that you want to be part of because we are talking about how she has evolved over the years to doing now, to pushing aside fear and now doing the scary things. So sit back, relax yourself, grab whatever drink you want. Is it coffee? Is it tea? Is it I don't know. Wine? Take a listen. Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte. I have been looking forward to our conversation today because can you believe you and I have been Instagram friends for seven years? We have been seven years in contact, all the time chatting. Sometimes we can go for months with now talking and then all of a sudden just pick up from where we left off. It is amazing that now it is this first time in seven years that I have you now on video and we're having this conversation for the podcast. So welcome to Paradise Perspectus chat. Charlotte, sorry, I was like so excited. I'm fumbling over my words here. But thank you so much for saying yes to this. I am so honored to have you here in the online studio.
SPEAKER_02:First off, I just I I can't believe it's been seven years. That still that's stomping me that the time has just gone by so quickly, and it's just encouraging me to really get a plane ticket and meet you in person.
SPEAKER_00:I was like, we are psycho we had to do this so long ago already, and for some reason we never could make it work, but I I have a feeling that soon, very soon, you and I are gonna be like, I'm finally gonna be able to touch you, hug you, and finally meet you in real life, and I'm so looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_02:I bring it on, Riz. Bring it on. I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00:So, yes, me too. So, for the listener, uh Charlotte and I met. It was through your sister Karina, who was one of the participants uh that attended my ever first retreat that I hosted back in 2018 uh here on St. Martin, and she was one of the people that came down for that retreat. And then you and I started talking because you were interested and coming in coming into the next one. So, since then, we found out so many things that we have in common. Um, but I have to take you now to, you know, one of our most recent conversations, and that was when you started, you decided to do something scary. Now, as soon as you told me you're having some reservations with this, I was like, I need to talk to this girl and we need to do it for the podcast. Because as soon as I hear that a woman is struggling with something scary and she's ready to go for it, my ears are like, I need to hear all about this story. But just before we dive into that part of our conversation today, can you just explain to the listener who you are? Who is Charlotte Jackson?
SPEAKER_02:Oh my gosh, that is such a loaded question these days. Um, because I've been on a journey of really figuring out who I am, almost a few months shy of 45, and I it's a loaded question, and I feel like it's a loaded question for so many women that have lived their lives and really have just existed, and you know, sometimes we don't even know what to say when that question is asked, but Charlotte today is an almost 45-year-old woman just ready to begin doing what she loves, and I am an educator at heart, I am an island girl, and you know, I love traveling, I love rest and peace and creating spaces for others to enjoy nature. But Charlotte has been reserved, has been lacking confidence over the year, and I'm just ready to do the things that matter, and some of the things that matter is just creating and um using the gifts that I've been given and finally dusting those things off and dusting, or you know, like not being focused on perfectionism and that imposter syndrome that we tend to have, and just doing things scared, and and that's where I am right now, and my heart's full, ready to learn and grow, but at the same time, there's that balance where you know, like where you feel like you've grown, you've healed in so many areas, and then things will come up again, and I'm like, why am I dealing with this again? Why is this lesson here to you know go one more round? Uh, you know, so I'm I'm just excited, but at the same time, I'm um also just wrestling with things and just chewing on things at the minute, but I feel like growth is the place that I'm in, and I'm excited for myself and for others when they're just stepping out in faith and doing the things that they love, and they've just kind of put that aside. So I don't know, I I probably still didn't answer your question of who I am, but I just know that I'm becoming who I was meant to be, and and I'm excited about that, and it that's just the conversations that I've had uh recently in the past year with women my age in their 40s and women that have felt that you know, like well, life has kind of left me behind, or you know, I I haven't achieved anything, but no, life is just beginning, and and I love the sweetness and the softness of the 40s, um, and just doing things scared and not worrying about things anymore. And you know what? I think I think that kind of came about. I noticed it for the first time when I did um I I had surf lessons um back in 2020.
SPEAKER_00:I remember that conversation we spoke about you actually going for your surf lessons.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, in Nicaragua. It was it was Christmas time, and I was on this beach, and there were people around me, adults, grown-ups, just minding their own business, enjoying Nicaragua, enjoying the sun, you know, and and here I was excited to try something new, but then it hit me as soon as I walked onto that beach that all of these people are gonna look at me do something that I'm not good at. And and I just had to let that go. And as soon as I hit the water, I I I loved it, I was fearless, and I didn't worry about who was looking at me or the fact that I was beginning something that wasn't natural to me, and I find that that's something really hard for grown-ups with kids. Yeah, they learn through play, they have fun, but you grow up and that magic, that spark just I don't know, just goes out the window. So that was a turning point for me, and then you deal with it again in some shape or form, but then I I kind of shrug it off and took up salsa lessons. Listen, I'm a Caribbean girl and I have rhythm, but I don't know how to follow instructions. So the anxiety of going to like a salsa lesson with people, grown-ups again, I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00:And then you just it's that fear of judgment that keeps coming up on us, which is ridiculous, really, if you dissect it, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So I guess this is how I ended up on your podcast, because last week we were having conversations about perfectionism and you know, just feeling like an imposter and never starting things, and you know, but now it's just like I have to fight, and and every time that fear comes up, because it doesn't go away, I pray that it goes away at some point, maybe in my 60s, if I live long enough to see it.
SPEAKER_00:But girl, I can tell you in my 50, now since I turned 50, I can tell you that no, fear never goes away. It never goes away. There's no such thing as being completely, absolutely fearless. It doesn't exist. The whole thing about being brave is doing it scared. That's where it is.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, and and that's just been my journey for the last year and a half, just doing it scared and you know, recognizing that when I think I've conquered something and I feel full of life and confident, life will just life and bring me something else that I will have to conquer that fear and recognize that man, I don't have to be perfect, you know. I I just need to be me. And I say this. Oh my goodness, I'm saying I'm having a therapy session with you right now. I say this, knowing in the back of my head that I am experiencing another thing that life is throwing, and I have no choice but to deal with it and you know, show up scared and do it anyway.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I can tell you, like just from you, how you answered that first question, and it's a very simple question, you might think, right? It's who are you? And normally we go into this repertoire that we are so used to doing, which is I am so and so, first name, last name, I live in so and so, I do so and so, and we go into that little rehearsed little version of who we are. But I just absolutely love how you answer this question, and you went by the Charlotte today is because you are always changing, you are always conquering new things, new fears that is just advancing you to the next level of your life, and it is so freaking beautiful to see that that's exactly what you are doing, and you are at that beautiful age where we are at zero F when we realize that we have given enough of ourselves to others, and it is time to put ourselves on that pedestal for a change. And it is so beautiful to see that that is where you're at, and like you said, as kids, it is so easy because it we weren't taught about people not liking what we do, we weren't taught yet about how about imposter syndrome. We were fearless as kids because we did it with play, and then now I say, why not introduce play back into our adulthood so that we can do it the same way as when we were kids? Like, listen, if you see me down the road with two pigtails, do not be surprised because I'm honoring my inner child and I am just using that inner child to just remind me of how fearless I can be. And I I just love seeing that that's what you're doing too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because I I feel like what I recognize is that for so many or most of my life I have been focused on doing, doing, doing, or the oh, Charlotte is this, Charlotte is a teacher, Charlotte is, you know. And I realize now that that needs to just go out the window, and I'm so much more focused on being, you know. Um, and I don't even know how to describe that, but just being me, doing the things that matter to me, and and that's definitely shifted something in my mind, and and it's definitely made me so much more happier. It's it's made like do you know what it's done? And I was reflecting on it a couple months ago. It's made me present, and I know that sounds cliche, it's like the in you know, like the word that people doesn't matter, really.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, like we're all using all of these cliches constantly, so please do not feel anyway.
SPEAKER_02:But I feel I feel I feel like I am where my feet are at. And when that happens, there's no worry about the doing part and just focusing on on just work or Charlotte has to be this for this one, or Charlotte has to be this for that one, you know, just being me, being who I was created to me to be is my where my heart is at, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Beautiful, absolutely. So now you live on Grand Cayman. Yes. Have I said it correctly? Because before we started recording, we had this whole thing about how to actually pronounce the name of your island in the correct way, because a lot of people would say Cayman's because it's three islands, that's a big no-no, it's not Cayman either, it is Cayman.
SPEAKER_02:Am I saying it right? You do not say the Caymans, no, no, no. It's uh the Cayman Islands, or you just if you're speaking specifically about an island, you just say Grand Cayman, little Cayman, or Cayman Brack, but never the Cayman's. No, no, Riz, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00:I know, and for some reason, I don't know what it is, but visitors sometimes have this feel or this urge to plant an S at the end of any island, really, because we get it St. Martin's all the time. We get I hear it with St. Bart's. St. Bart's is one island. Where is that S coming from? You know, it's like so, yeah. So I'm glad we got that out of the way because I do not intend to mispronounce it ever again. Um, so let's go back to Grand Cayman, where you're from, and tell me this because you and I have never met in real life. But let's say I'm painting this scenario, I'm coming down to see you, and we're finally going to meet. Where would be the first place you'll take me to?
SPEAKER_02:I think I pick you up at the airport, and for me, I would probably take you to one of my favorite places. We would go and have lunch or dinner, whatever time you come in, and we're gonna sit on a wall, a sea wall, and I was just there on Sunday and just eating pizza by myself. But love that it is a local little establishment where you get local food, and then you just you can sit there, but even sitting there at a table, you can see the sea, you can see the sunset. So, me, I would probably be flip-flops and cut off jeans, and I'd be like, come on, Riz, let's go sit on the wall. Me a little extra. I have a thing for blankets, so I would put a blanket on this seawall, and we would just sit there and just watch the sunset or you know, and chat into the night and just uh just you be a blanket on a wall, staring at the ocean with pizza.
SPEAKER_00:I am so in.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, call me a cheap date, but but then we could have some good food right right there. They have it's they have a little restaurant called Heritage Kitchen, and you know, we could get some food from there, get you a I don't know, a look, maybe yeah, I'm sure they'll have a local bear, and then just go on the wall and just sit there and just chat and um yeah, that's my idea of Grand K Man. And that's my idea of being a little local-ish, you know.
SPEAKER_00:I I love that.
SPEAKER_02:I wouldn't take you out to the to the local ref or to the restaurants, the fancy restaurants, you know. I would just take you some, you know, some little place.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and those are the places I look for when I'm traveling wherever I go, those are the places that fill me up and just make me feel yeah, the inconspicuous little places that they're just so not pretentious, they're just so local and so down to earth where you can be yourself and in your cutoff jeans and your flip box. Exactly, you know, and that is exactly what I look for as well when I travel. I'm not into all of this, like you know, fancy do and uh like luxurification, of course. Who doesn't like luxurification? But for me, the true luxury of visiting any Caribbean island is being able to just be in these little things, like sitting, like you said, on that seawall, and then with pizza flip-flops, and then just talking the night away, you know, and knowing you and I, we were probably gonna have a lot to talk about, and we will be needing like two nights back to the conversation.
SPEAKER_02:What we would be there for hours, and you know, like the thing about Grand K Man, Riz, is that so many people could actually come here and not venture out of their hotel or you know, like I just see it. And I actually sat there one time when we hosted a football team. Riz, one of the things we do have in common is cats. So um a cat has entered the room.
SPEAKER_00:Yay, the more the barrier. This this wait, is this a female cat or is that no?
SPEAKER_02:This is a male cat.
SPEAKER_00:This is Well, we're we're gonna make an exception.
unknown:You can join us.
SPEAKER_02:This is Sullivan. But what I was what I was gonna say is that it is so easy for for folks to come to Grand Cayman and not experience anything local-ish. And a friend of mine was telling me about that the other day that you know he was out on the beach, and someone asked, Where can I go and get some fish? And they were gonna go to uh to a restaurant down the strip. And he was like, No, you gotta go to East End. And that is another place I would take you, seaside, and it's just beautiful. Thank Caribbean breeze and just chill. And it was surprising how they had come to Cayman four or five times and they had never been to that side of the island. Yeah, and he was still on the beach hours later when the family came back and said, Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00:You know, they'd never experienced Cayman like that, and no, it's it blows my mind every single time because that happens here in Simarkin as well. We are 37 square miles, 37 square miles. We are so tiny, we are so tiny that when you blow up the Caribbean, you don't even see us unless we're so small, right? But at the same time, people have been coming here for years, and then still there are parts of this tiny island that they have never ventured into, just because, well, they'd rather stay in that familiar zone where there are other people that look like them, that talk like them, that are from the same country as they are, and they don't venture out and make local friends, make local connections, you know, other than just a bartender at their favorite hotel. So it's it's just it baffles me because Chad is just so outside of how I travel. Exactly, you know, so it's that's exactly it's very foreign for me.
SPEAKER_02:That's where my mind went to immediately because when I travel, I don't want what I have in Cayman.
SPEAKER_00:Excuse the cat, the cat tail, you know, and you know what I love about your cat is he looks exactly like my Rufus.
SPEAKER_02:Rufus has the exact same color pattern, so it's so beautiful, but but but yeah, um Riz, it it is quite remarkable, but I know that you and I like we're the same type of traveler, and I don't want to go to an island or any place and not feel local, you know, or be as local-ish as I possibly can be, learning about the culture, learning um, or just talking to to the people from the place that I'm visiting, you know, that is all me, and I know I'm certain that that is you.
SPEAKER_00:So you and I will be in the the the little, you know, I think you and I need to like for our meeting, we're probably gonna have to go travel together, which we spoke about last week, by the way. But um, so the one thing that you in our conversation that we recently had um on Instagram, we've been chatting back and forth, and you mentioned that you have started to do something new, you have taken your life into a new direction, and you know that is what I love about when we come to this age that we started realizing that we need to start doing, and you mentioned that when I asked you who you are, who is Charlotte Jackson Jackson. You said that it is, you know, you're changing direction, and then yeah, the limiting beliefs and the imposter syndrome comes up, and the fears and all of that comes up, you know, the fear of judgment. Um, but you have still persevered and you have decided because I remember in that conversation, you were still a little like, oh that's sure. You're still in the midst of that scary part of being a little hesitant just because it is new to you. But I want you to please tell the listener what you what venture you have now started, some new venture you're going into.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm doing what I sh probably should have well not probably, you know, every experience has its value and timing, and life has a way of bringing things back to you that that you probably should have done like years ago. So as an 18-year-old, before the whole world became uh videographers or photographers, I always had a camera, and my niece Tatiana reminded me of that. And and I was my heart was just so full when she said, You're probably the reason why I picked up a camera. And she just told me that last week, and I guess she's seeing me finally own that and take that on, and I've it just happened randomly, but I was encouraged by another creator, and it just it just organically grew from that, and just me watching how they their whole creative process, and he does something completely different, but there's something about creators, it doesn't matter if we're doing something different when we're in the room together and having conversations, you leave full, you leave encouraged and motivated to go and do your own thing as well, and then you come back and you talk and get ideas, and so that happened, and I bought myself a proper lens after all of these years because I'm like, oh, this is too expensive, or I would fill up a cart full of lens and equipment, and by the end, I would have it would be 10,000 and I would be like, that's too expensive. Where am I gonna get the money to get all of this equipment? But just the shift and mindset and thinking, oh, I have options, I know how to get every single thing, and just begin. Isn't that our conversation? Just begin.
SPEAKER_00:That was our conversation. Yeah, just start and do it, messy. You are not going to be perfect the first time you try anything new, but you have to just start. And I am so incredibly proud of you because you have done exactly that. But going back to our conversation, what we were talking about is how you were coming up with so many excuses, because let's be honest, that's fear talking, and then we come up with these we form these excuses in our heads. So, what were some of your excuses not to start? Where were where was the what was the things that were holding you back, the fears that were keeping you back from definitely comparison, but highlighted there was I'm not good enough.
SPEAKER_02:And I don't know how to do that. And do you see how wrong that thinking is? I don't know how to do that.
SPEAKER_00:You've been doing it since you were 18, so I don't know what you're talking about. You don't know how to do it.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know the technical part of it. I just, you know, I I mean it messed this up, and I wouldn't try, and I wouldn't try because I wanted to be good at it, just perfect, and that's not how things work, and I'm finally figuring that out. I don't have to be perfect, and I guess you're hearing that throughout this whole you know, our conversations and throughout our time together today, you know, I'm finally figuring out that I don't have to be perfect to start something, and you like I mentioned last week, that quote that has just resonated with me is just make it exist and then make it better, you know, after. And so I just felt like, oh, I don't have options, I don't know how to do this, and man, there's YouTube, and I'm becoming a student of YouTube and TikTok, and just yesterday I was editing, and I realized Charlotte always wants to know everything, but I actually don't have to know everything in the editing world at this point. I will get what I need in that moment, and I will grow in that moment, and the next challenge or the next project, I might need something different, I might need to learn a new thing, and I will go and I will look for it, and I'm gonna grow, but I've always felt like I needed to know everything about photography in order for me to start, and I'm figuring it out at this age, I don't need none of that, and so that has been my stumbling block just wanting to know everything. Or or not starting something unless I knew I was a professional at it. And where does that come from? That fear of looking bad, that fear of being judged, you know. So have I gotten it? Have I, you know, like, do I approach life in that manner? No, not completely, you know, but slowly taking small steps and and just growing in confidence. And and something a dear friend of mine said to me a couple months ago, small wins. Small wins.
SPEAKER_00:Celebrate the small wins.
SPEAKER_02:It builds your confidence and it gives you the courage to do one more thing. And that just mushrooms into something bigger. And you never know how that impacts someone else. And it encourages encourages their soul in that moment, right when they need it. Right?
SPEAKER_00:So I'm listening to you, and all I can hear in the back of my head is hallelujah. You know, like when we realize that we are keeping ourselves small just because we are scared and we are we're changing, we need to change the narrative. Just like you said, I'm not, I don't know how to do this. You also know that that is such a wrong thing to say because you have been doing this all along, you've always been taking pictures, you have always loved photography. So, what makes you not good enough for this?
SPEAKER_02:And I'm so happy that you realize it's a narrative that I've fed myself for way too long, and it's a narrative that many women, you know, have filled their their minds with, and and that can't happen anymore. There is so much beauty that's lost because we're scared or or afraid to do things because we want to do it perfect, and and slowly that's something that I don't want, I don't want to be a part of that anymore.
SPEAKER_00:You know, good, yeah, absolutely. Um, so there is, you know what the thing is that once we started talking about this when we were having our conversation before this recording, and you were telling me that you're now going into photography, and you started, you launched your Instagram page accidentally, accidentally, there's still zero pictures on there. But I am so looking forward to the pictures because, girl, when I asked you for an example, you sent me a uh what is it, a portrait that you have just shot for a client, and I'm like, oh my god, this is absolutely gorgeous, and I think wherever we meet, we need to do a session because I am going to pay you for my portrait session. Absolutely, it is so good, and I'm like, I'm looking at this photo, and I'm like, why would she hesitate to do this? It is so beautiful. It's wild, it's crazy the things that we tell ourselves, but but you know what now I'm going into a question that I've really wanted to ask you since we started talking about photography. It is what is one photo that you have taken? Not since you decided to become Charlotte, the photographer, but ever. What is that one photo that you have taken that instantly makes you smile and that actually helps you change that narrative to see, I could totally do this.
SPEAKER_02:Do you mean of someone else that I've taken a picture that I've taken or whatever?
SPEAKER_00:It could be of a landscape, whatever photo you have taken recently, that you are now looking back on it and was like, damn. Well, actually, I could totally do this.
SPEAKER_02:It wasn't even a photo, it was a video that I that I shot. Um, yes.
SPEAKER_00:Um tell me more. Tell us everything.
SPEAKER_02:I knew that I I got my lens, um, and I'm in the process of getting more lens. Um, there's nothing cheap about photography. Um but I knew this was going to happen. I knew that I would take my summer break to work on my portfolio and um to launch. But before that, you know, you just kind of drag your feet. Yeah, I'm gonna do it. But you sometimes you just need that little push and cat hair on the face. My push.
SPEAKER_00:So familiar.
SPEAKER_02:My push, Riz ended up being um asked, you have a lens? Yeah, I do. Uh, can you shoot this for me? I wanna um so sorry. This cat right here. But I got asked to to sh do a shoot in a in a studio, um, and that is where it all started and my confidence started to build. I have hadn't even shot a photograph, you know, at this point. But I was in this studio just filming, and we ended up creating the most beautiful little video clip. And in the in the in the last few years, uh while I was living on one of in C and Brack, um, I realized that man, I don't take up my camera, I don't do anything with my camera, but I realized that I loved filming. And these I was just filming the beauty of Cayman Brack and I could just do that and just keep going back to the same spot and loved it, and I was encouraged and motivated to just film, but picking up my camera to take pictures of landscapes or of people, I couldn't do it, and so it's just remarkable how I finally started creating content for myself through filming, and it's actually ironic now as I think about it that I started finally taking photographs of people, portraits and and whatnot. I started that because of that little push into filming a little music video, and so I don't know, there's something there where I love filming and creating stories, but at that at this point, I'm not particularly focused on that at the minute. I'm just just wanting to learn through photography and then just transfer my skills into filmmaking, and I don't know what I'm gonna do with it. I'm just doing it for the pleasure of it, not because I want to start something, I want to be the the next uh videographer, you know, starts, you know, I'm just doing it for the pleasure of it, and I think that's what filming does for me. I'm able to create little stories um out of all my little clips, and it just fills me in a way that maybe photography didn't, but it's it's the thing that pushes me forward and it gave me the confidence to huh, you've never done this before. And do you know what? It was encouraging, it was the most fun thing that I've ever done, and it made me see that I don't have to be perfect, you know, and it just went out into the world and it got many likes. Um, it was on someone else, yeah, it was well accepted. And I did, and you did share parts of that video with me, and it's I loved it, and it it it's not even on my feed, you know, and but that gave me the confidence. I guess I was still feeling like an imposter, but it gave me the confidence to just try. I don't know what will come out of my shoots, but just try. And and here I am, just excited and just taking pictures of the most beautiful people and recognizing that. I guess my gift, one of my gifts has always been seeing beauty in people, especially when they don't see it, especially when they don't feel it. This was part of our conversation last week. Not feeling beautiful, but whether we feel it or not, it does not diminish the beauty in in you and I and in people, and and I think that I've been able to see that in my students, just see how perfect and how beautiful they are, and now it's just transferring that onto film and and and just just doing it now for the pleasure of it, and and and just encouraging me to get on a plane and just photograph people and places and just enjoy this journey.
SPEAKER_00:I am so excited for this new part of your journey. It is going to be spectacular. I have no doubt of it, absolutely not. Um, but I have to ask you, what do you think? How does living in in Grand Cayman influence your creativity and your courage? What do you think? It did the island bring this out in you somehow? Because you just said yes, you saw the beauty in your students uh as an educator, but you also saw the beauty in people. Um, but what do you think about island life has pushed you over this, you know, pretend limit that you have put for yourself, this fear that has been keeping you back? Has the island influenced you in any way?
SPEAKER_02:I've always kind of felt kind of like an outsider here. Uh, Karina and I weren't born here. It is home, and I will tell you, it is it'll always be the place my sanctuary is the place that I'll always come back to. It'll it'll be the place that I live. But in terms of creativity, I never before I never felt inspired here. I would go somewhere else and feel inspired there, and I would take you know, create little stories um on my phone or my camera, but I never I feel bad saying it, but I never felt inspired here until I moved to Cayman Brac and just love the ruggedness of the Brack. And maybe it's just the Brack, maybe it's where I'm at in life, and there goes the tale, but but now there's that willingness to not need something to inspire me and just do it and see what beauty comes out of it, you know. So oh, I feel really bad saying I never felt inspired and came in, but but I am inspired by by women now. I'm inspired by community and just being able to capture the beauty of these women. Um and that's mainly who I've been capturing on film these days, but um, but yeah, I just I just want to see the light in in the people that I capture, you know?
SPEAKER_00:And and now just for reference for somebody like me who I've never visited before, right? What is the difference between Grand Cayman and K. Oh my gosh. There's from what I understood, it is complete opposites, but yes, let me give you the word on this.
SPEAKER_02:Different. Uh think Cayman Brack, oh think Cayman like say 30 years ago, like in terms of community, in terms of size, um, in terms of, you know, like the family unit, that togetherness. Uh Cayman Brack is slowly getting, you know, like amenities that you'd enjoy, but it's still very, very laid back, very community focused. And definitely got to experience that while I was there for one school year working there. Um, and for me, I just think rugged, um, just beautiful and just still very much untouched. Um, it's slowly very it's very it's slowly changing. Um, people are buying and building there, but there's just something quaint and just rugged about the BRAC that it's no longer, you know, it's not like here in Cayman where you have the the big hotels and you know, so BRAC is just different. And and once you're embraced by a Cayman Bracca or a Braca as they call themselves, you know, it is like I've I've arrived, I've gotten my my passport, and you know, I've been formally adopted into you know the Brack soil, but you don't go over there expecting the huge hotels or you know, like the restaurants and mini activities. No, you don't you go over there, I think, just rest and relaxation, but snorkeling and and you know, you you have your little bars and people will go and yeah, just pull up a chair and just enjoy chat and you know, but it's a different feel, it's like you walk away with your heart full. Um and in a simple way of living.
SPEAKER_00:And in a very simple way of living, too.
SPEAKER_02:There it's just different. You just have to come on, come on over, and I'll take you over to the BRAC, and you'll see.
SPEAKER_00:Oh gosh, I think we're probably gonna probably spend well. Obviously, we need to do our conversation and catch up on the seawall, like you said, but then afterwards we are definitely heading to the BRAC. Now, I think what you're describing is the power of nature, and especially when you live in like St. Martin has been, in my opinion, over it's it's just the tourism has totally taken us over. Um, if you believe in over-tourism, in my opinion, that's what St. Martin is now, which is one of the reasons why I stopped really pushing St. Martin out there. Um, but I feel like we have grown so fast and so much, and it has become that city island mentality and feeling, and it doesn't, it has no longer that charm of Caribbean living, or it still has it in certain parts, but not in the entire island anymore. But I think that is what you're describing with the BRAC, that is the difference between Grand Cayman and BRAC, because it's just still nature, there's a lot of nature, there's a lot of community, there's still a village kind of mentality where people where you are accepted and embraced with you know wherever you're coming from. It is that, and I think that is what I get. Now that I hear you talking about it, that's what I get in my happy place, which happens to be Anguilla. And Anguilla is where I go to have that feeling of you know being embraced by a village and also um getting inspired by nature. My creativity flows like crazy when I'm there too.
SPEAKER_02:So I totally love that Cayman, or yeah, I should say grand Cayman. Um I love that we're like this little mini UN and I I feel so safe here. I venture out, I could be alone at two o'clock in the morning and not have to watch my sh over my shoulder. And I'm thankful for that, but I have experienced like you the impact of tourism, and I think one of the things that kind of hits me the wrong way, and I feel that we haven't gotten quite well, is that you know, the tourism package here, it's more it's geared for the tourists coming and having the similar amenities that they would at home. And I'm not that type of traveler, I don't go to Nicaragua expecting Cayman there, and I would I would be you know, I wouldn't go back.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's not why you travel, and for me also, it's like what better, more fulfilling way to get something out of a destination where you're at for a few days than to experience a different culture that is completely different than yours. And I feel like so many of the islands in the Caribbean, including Grand Cayman and St. Martin, have done their best to accommodate the tourists, the Western tourists, so much that they have lost their own identity, as to say it in a way, right? They lost their own identity, and the reason why these people started to visit in the first place, you know, we started to create this thing that we're not. Um, so it's it's so interesting to hear you talk about.
SPEAKER_02:There's so much beauty around, and I love my home, and and I always will, but I see the changes, and you're right, you know, I'm not comfortable with accommodating, you know, because I don't feel like I'm being accommodated when I'm traveling, and I love that.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely love that right, mm-hmm. Yeah, getting lost, trying to find your way around, and then trying things that are completely outside of your comfort zone, and then trying it and you know, liking it. It's it's just it's just so mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_02:Now we're back and I just had it my album. The last time I was in Nicaragua, just listen, I think of the biggest, the most the stupidest grin on my face after falling off of my surfboard, you know, for over an hour, but just walking back and bare feet and just loving it. And and the community just embracing me, like, okay, you know, I guess she's one of those crazy surfer dudes or whatever, dude and stuff. But but I just felt in that moment in time, I just felt like I was where my feet were, and I was enjoying life as it was, just the peace and the quiet of that community, you know, and no one looked at me like I was uh, you know, crazy. But um, but just just love moments like that. And that's there's freedom in that. And I don't know, there's I want that for people that come to Cayman, or you would want that, you know, for folks that come to St. Martin, you know, but I guess I don't know, just how to figure out a way where we coexist, show the beauty of the places that we where where we live, but then you know, show it in such a way that's uniquely Caymanian, you know. But um, just how to get to that place, or will we ever get to that place?
SPEAKER_00:Um, unfortunately, not everybody has the same mentality as we do, or the same look on tourism, or the same opinions on tourism as we do, and you know it's it's just sad, but um going back to our conversation about fear, there is one thing that I wanted to ask you about that too. It's like if you look at or if you take took fear out of the equation completely, like if there was no more fears holding you back from completely going into this new journey that you're about to head into, what would you do next with this, you know, this new talent that you have rediscovered, your talent for photography and videography? What where would that take you? Oh my goodness, you think?
SPEAKER_02:What would you do next? I think that's the question that I've been asking myself. And recently it's it's definitely like coming into its own um where I have thought about my ideal little world, what it would look like, and I feel like it would include living in Cayman for part of a year, and then living just simply somewhere in Nicaragua, or if I could find somewhere else that brings me that that uh feel of being alive, like Nika does, and just working from there and bringing all of the things that I love to do together, like writing, and you know, creating content that that obviously includes filming and and snapping pictures and just documenting life and its simplicity, and that's where my mind is going. That's what I would want for myself. Have I figured how that how I'm gonna get to there? Not yet, but I will tell you when as soon as I I figure that out. But how to bring all of those things together and still be the educator and still do the things that I love, like creating spaces for people to refresh, you know, um, instead of sitting behind a desk for hours and hours for the rest of their lives. Just, I mean, someone has to do the job, right?
SPEAKER_00:I know that I want to sit in an office for hours and hours for the rest of my life, but what I do want is for the people that do work in these types of environments to refresh and and and ex out from behind the desk every so often and do something different for a while. I mean, like, you know, like no, I'm not saying sitting behind the desk is the worst thing that you can do with your life, and of course, it's completely up to you. There are people who actually love the nine to five um, you know, work or the type of work that you're sitting behind the desk. Absolutely no judgment here, but every soul now and then get behind from behind the desk and experience life and just grab it by the horns and just dance with it and play with it and see where it leads you, and then you go back to behind your desk, you know? It's um, and I think especially women, we forget that if we just put it out of our minds that all that judgment and that what will people say? What will people do? It's like if you put all of that aside, just think about how happy and how just fulfilling it would be to just go after that life that you really want, and why not? Why not have a why not?
SPEAKER_02:Why not?
SPEAKER_00:Why not me? Yeah, oh, it is so good. Yes, why not me? I absolutely love that, Charlotte. It has been an incredible, incredible honor and pleasure to have you on Paradise Prospectus. I thank you so much for making it time to be here. Um, you know, shout out to your sister Karina, because I am sure she's listening to this episode right now. Uh, she has been instrumental, if not the reason why we met, um, and why we're probably gonna meet in real life very, very soon. So, with that, I want to ask you one last question. Well, two actually. One is how can people see your stuff? And I know you've mentioned that you by accident launched your Instagram about the Charlotte, the photographer. Um, but and I'm sure that after this conversation, you are going to start posting some of your fantastic photos and videos. So I'm really looking forward to that. But if people want to get in touch with you, and if they more importantly, if they want to start creating magic with you and hire your services, where do they go? How do they get in touch with you?
SPEAKER_02:Don't take me. But I'm on Instagram, and my handle is uh captured, it's captured by Charlotte, but on Instagram you're gonna have an X after the word captured, so it's captured X Charlotte, but really it's captured by Charlotte, and that's just me capturing light and love and a lot of sandy toes. You'll you'll see on my feed because that's just what I love. I love the beach, I love the ocean. Um, I love island life. I love island life. The rest that it brings. I love how it restores your mind. Just sit on you know this. Sit on the beach 10 minutes and oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh, that is everything right there. I cannot be, and I think that's why I always need to need to be near water, whether it's a river, a lake, the ocean. I need to be near water. It is so incredibly healing, and also your creativity sparks, and it's just a hard time. I've always felt like nature is the place where we where we meet the the creator of all things, you know, and it just refreshes your soul, and um yeah, and we're also where we draw all our inspiration, it comes usually from nature.
SPEAKER_02:It's a it's island girl, nature girl, oh yeah. But um, I'm just looking forward to what this beginning will bring, and I I would love to collaborate with with persons um who are traveling and I get to capture capture them on film, doing exciting things, um, chasing waterfalls or you know, just enjoying a day at a river or whatever, you know, everything that makes my heart lighter, everything that makes my heart full, you know. I want to be able to do this, um, and also provide a service where where I capture the beauty of people, but definitely, you know, just bringing that together with travel, girl.
SPEAKER_00:That will be it. Oh, that's so beautiful, and I cannot wait to see that for you, to see that happening for you, which I am sure it will. It will, it will very, very soon. So, last question before I let you go is that of course I need to draw reference to the conversation that we had recently when we were chatting back and forth, and you mentioned this incredible thing that I actually never heard of before, and now I am going to emphasize. Implement it in my yearly routine, and that is the bingo part.
SPEAKER_02:You have to thank my niece Tatiana. Apparently, it's a big TikTok thing that blew up last year, I think. But it's just taking a empty uh bingo template and just filling it up with all of the things that you would like to do or achieve. At least that was my interpretation of it, and I went for it. I embraced it for the year.
SPEAKER_00:And it's for the year, right? So you just do it at the beginning of the year for the entire year. Like these are the things that I want to accomplish. Is that how we work?
SPEAKER_02:My 2026 bingo card, which will which will include um a girl's trip with Rizal.
SPEAKER_00:So uh we're making it happen. I'm gonna put the same thing on my bingo card for 2026.
SPEAKER_02:And things just happen. Like, for instance, I decided that I wanted to run a 5K for the first time in my life. Listen, I don't run. I've I I chase footballs, you know, or I play sports, but running, not a thing, not a but it became a reality when I decided that I was going to start training and that I was gonna go to Jamaica to run my first 5k. And guess what? This girl did it, absolutely did it, had the prime minister do me to start 28 seconds behind me, but my boy, he you know, finished it like 10 minutes ahead of me. But hey, listen, the goal was not, you know, like this fantastic time for me. The goal was going to Jamaica, running a 5K, and actually finishing. And I did it.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Congratulations. Good on you, and it's all a pleasant.
SPEAKER_02:You know what's happening with the college coming to visit you. I'm going to run a 10K.
SPEAKER_00:Of course, of course. It's the it's a natural advancement, right? So we're not doing visual words anymore. We're doing big.
SPEAKER_02:And you can take it for those that love to take things, yeah. That's me. Yeah, that's me. Done achieved next. Have I achieved all of them? No, but I'm revinted.
SPEAKER_00:But listen, also, we're in half of the year, so you still have time. Well, a little over half. We still have time. We still have what? We have October, November, this. We yeah, we can no, we have still like the time number this years, we still have three months. We're good. September, October, November this month. No, we have four months now.
unknown:We're good.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't thank you enough for your encouragement over the years, and this last year and a half has helped me to see how having a solid community of women, whether they live next door to you or across the Caribbean, it is so vital for life and it makes things so much richer. And you've encouraged me these last seven years. Um incredible seven years, but I just feel like I can't thank you enough, and I just get so excited when you post. So don't don't take that for granted. Don't ever think that your voice isn't reaching the little crevices, and you know, it's it's definitely traveling far.
SPEAKER_00:So well, thank you so much for that. That means the world to hear that coming from you and from anyone, really. It's like, you know, because you know whenever you post how many of those, you know, the little voices creep up. It's like this is not what people want to hear. And who are you to say what you're saying?
SPEAKER_02:And then so this is so beautiful to hear you say, thank you for your beauty for the richness of your life that it just it inspires others, you know, it spurns them out. So just just thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and thank you. The same from you, it's like you're doing incredible things, you're inspiring me in so many ways as well. So, thank you for being open, not only with me, but with the listener today as well, and your endeavors and how you're getting over your fears. And who knows, maybe you have inspired somebody that is listening to this podcast episode right now to do that scary thing that she has been putting on the back shelf just because she was afraid of doing it. So, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being a part of the fearless warrior. Thank you. Thank you. See you next year. We're making it happen. Yes, we're gonna make it happen again, Ruth. What a great conversation, right? That was it for this episode and for our talk today. I hope that you got a lot of valuable information from the conversation that we had with Charlotte Jackson. Such a pleasant, pleasant person to talk to and just to be friends with. I am so excited to meet her sometime down the road. I am sure that we will. I am putting it in my bingo cards for 2026, you know. I don't know about you, but I think instead of a vision board, I'm gonna do a bingo card this year, you know, for 2026. What about you? What do you think? Let me know. Send me a message at hello at the traveling islandgirl.com. Now, if you are struggling with these fears that are keeping you back from living your best life, from accomplishing and going after those dreams that you keep having, that passion that you feel in your heart that you should pursue, then what are you waiting for? Let this be your sign to just jump, just jump in, feet first, head first, whatever, but just jump, take action because standing on the sidelines and just looking at it go by is not the answer. Okay, that's not what we're doing anymore. We are all about doing it and doing it scared, but doing it anyway. Just a little reminder before I let you go today. Uh, please, if you have the time, and even if you don't, because it only takes like literally, it takes you one minute. If you are on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, go on to the review section, leave me a review, a couple of stars. You know, if you are enjoying this podcast and you want me to continue with more episodes just like this one, or with more information on how you can start living and create that beautiful life that you want to create for yourself, a life that you absolutely love, then do me a favor and leave a review, leave a couple of stars because that's how this podcast will grow and reach more people. By the way, speaking of other people, if you have somebody, a friend, a sister, a mom, an auntie, if you have somebody in your life that needs to hear this episode and more episodes from Paradise Perspectives, send it to them. Share this with all the women in your life. You know, I think honestly, that these kind of conversations we need to have more of. Alright, that's it for me. I am going to be back next Thursday with most probably a solo episode. I'm not quite sure yet. But, anyways, I hope you tune back in and I hope that you join me next week for another episode of Paradise Perspectives. Thank you so much for listening. I love you.
