[Female narrator #1] Everywhere you turn, people try to tell you who to be and what to do, but what about deciding for yourself?
Roadtrip Nation is a movement that empowers people to define their own roads in life.
Every summer, we bring together three people from different backgrounds.
Together, they explore the country interviewing inspiring individuals from all walks of life.
They hit the road in search of wisdom and guidance to find what it actually takes to build a life around doing what you love.
This is what they found.
This is Roadtrip Nation.
[Sofaya] It's like the day before we fly out, slash leave each other forever.
I keep saying it but it hasn't hit me yet.
[Ben]  I'll get on the train to Rhode Island, Sofaya is taking a train to the airport to fly to Atlanta.
We'll say our goodbyes.
[Martha]  It's going to be sad to leave.
(giggles) [Ben] We're about to interview Tina Roth Eisenberg who is the founder of the blog Swiss Miss [Ben] Ben.
[Sofaya] Sofaya.
[Tina]  Sofaya.
[Tina] I grew up in a, at the time a three thousand people village, an hour east of Zurich, and like just imagine green hills, farm land, and alps.
I literally had cows in front of my door.
And then I came to New York in nineteen ninety nine and within twelve hours I found an internship which was absurd.
And within I think a month or so they offered me a full time job and a visa.
[Ben]  What was it like taking that leap, what were your kind of your motivations and feelings surrounding that?
[Tina] Well I arrived in New York and I remember taking a subway to this job interview and I noticed how everyone walked as fast as me, and talked as fast as me, like I realized that in Switzerland I always had to slow myself down, like I always felt like I'm a bit too much and I talk a bit too much.
I always felt like I had to hit the brakes.
And I only realized once I moved here I was like 'Oh wait a second, they're all like on the fast lane, they all have ideas, they're bubbling over with ideas of things they want to make and everybody tells you 'Oh go go go, go do it.'
And I just instantly was home, like I am home in New York, this is it.
When you surround yourself with like-minded people that are really pushing themselves and want to put out the best work and be the best people they have and dream really big, that's contagious, because that influences what you dream about.
That was really the starting point where my career started taking off.
I sort of really started thinking about where I was in life and what I wanted in life and what my goals were.
And I was like wait a second, Tina you always wanted to have your own studio, design studio.
And I was always waiting for that you know perfect moment, angelic choir coming down saying Tina you should start your own business now.
And that never comes by the way, and I figured you know, the things that really make me happy are the things I've started on the side what I call the side projects, my passion projects.
Which are, for example a 'To Do' App called Teux Deux, that was just a side project that has accidentally started into a small business then there is my blog Swiss Miss, it's a design blog that I started myself to keep track of the things I see.
And then there's Tattly, a temporary tattoo company I started as a joke which has also grown into a fourteen people company now [Martha] Do you feel like it takes like a certain financial stability to be able to then kind of do those sort of things?
No, because I always, I, nope.
If there's a will there's a way.
Like so many of the people I work with, they have the coolest side projects on the side and they're going to turn into small businesses and they might take over their life eventually I can see it, you know, and they don't have huge incomes you know, but they make it work, it's just a hustle, you gotta be a hustler.
You need to be a complete self starter and like you need to just be able to see what needs to be done or just like be an initiator right, and if there is a will you can make it work.
[Martha] Um one person we talked to the other day talked about how it's important to like have your toolbox of very specific skills you're good at, but I don't really know what my skill set is yet.
Do you think it's really important to have that one specific skill and then everything else kind of.
[Tina]  Well I think it depends, when I hire someone at Tatly, to me I'm looking for a generalist somebody who's a hustler and has all kind of skills.
So, somebody like you, would probably you know fit the bill.
You're a generalist and you like doing a lot of different things.
I love, I think I would call myself a generalist as well.
There's nothing wrong with having a lot of different skills.
You just need to find a place where that is actually your strength.
You just got to do what is the most authentic for you and makes you the happiest.
Because when you believe and you're on that path about being true to yourself and doing the thing that really makes you thrive and happy, I believe you will be successful.
The world is your oyster, I seriously, if you're a hustler if you just really put yourself out there.
[Ben]  This is so good to hear towards the end of our month.
[Tina] What you're doing right now is so amazing, I'm so envious.
[Ben] I know but it's so like, personally to talk to you and have you point out those things and showing us like how important they are, it just kind of reinvigorates me, like 'oh my gosh I need to apply this now' [Tina]  Give it six months, you're going to realize how enlightening this trip has been that you've been doing now.
You guys all have great personalities.
You know you have people skills, you have charm like you're going to do fine.
Just don't wait for it to fall out of the sky [Martha]  I liked her cause she was very up front, she was just totally forward about her love for things.
I just always felt like I liked a lot of things and liked to learn about a lot of things and liked to do a lot of things and could be pretty good at a lot of things but had always felt a little out of place because of that I guess and that she really saw strength in being a generalist was very, very validating.
[Martha] We are in Brooklyn uh we are about to go interview Gary Hustwit, who's a documentary filmmaker, made some bomb documentaries about design.
So Helvetica, Urbanized and Objectified.
But more importantly it's the last interview.
Not going to be teary at all during this interview, not going to cry.
It's going to be really great.
[Martha] In March I was sitting in a Material Culture class and my teacher puts on 'Objectified' and I was like oh, design.
The word itself hadn't really come into my brain as a possibility for how I could connect all my interests before.
[male narrator #3] Every object, intentional or not speaks to who put it there.
[male narrator #4]  Every object tells a story.
[Martha] So that was kind of a really cool moment and then I went and watched Urbanized and that really sparked my interest in urban planning and design, so I kind of have you to thank for why I'm here today.
So this summer has really been an exploration of trying to find exactly how those pieces fit together and what design can mean in my life.
Yeah, so.
[Ben] Yeah, so I guess we'd love to hear kinda your story a little you know.
[Gary] That's I mean, when I was going to college what I was really interested in was music, my friends were all in bands and we just had the idea that hey lets just put on a concert and see what happens.
Sure enough four hundred people showed up and we actually made money and we were just like this is amazing, so a lot of my time from then to now has been thinking of things that I really wanted to do or see kinda trusting that there are other people out there who are thinking the exact same thing as I am.
Like Helvetica is a perfect example, the movie.
I really wanted to make a film of my own so in two thousand five I kinda came up with the idea to make Helvetica and I just wanted to watch a movie about graphic design and fonts just because I was just kind of a design geek, I couldn't find anything out there.
So I'm like there must be other people like me thinking the same thing so I just decided to make the movie.
I mean I hadn't directed a film at that point.
That was the first you know, time I picked up a camera and then I was a filmmaker.
And that's been the past, yeah almost ten years ago.
It seems like kind of the trajectory of your life has been like you basically see something you want to see doesn't exist.
I feel like so many people see that and just don't do anything about it and where did you find the confidence to say like 'oh that's going to be me.'
For me it still goes back to those early years of just trying stupid ideas and then they actually worked and I just like, oh my god.
There's a momentum in actually starting a project and doing it.
Like a lot of times people that I know are like yeah I'm thinking about doing this thing, I might try to do this film project.
Just just do it you know.
The moment you say I'm doing it, it changes the dynamic of everybody that is around you.
You're like you're doing it, oh great, oh god I know somebody that can help and I can help you too or whatever.
It's not like I want to be a filmmaker, I am a filmmaker.
You know I'm starting this thing I'm doing it.
Suddenly everybody is like 'oh yeah, Martha is a filmmaker now yeah she's doing a...It changes everything around you, it opens up so many possibilities.
It's like willing yourself to be the thing you really want to be.
But it totally, it totally works.
[Martha] So you've done several films that are really immersing in design.
And kind of learn so much from so many different types of designers.
This may be a huge question, but what has remained with you about what is so vital and exciting and important about design.
[Gary] Just looking around you and just like realizing that everything is design.
Everything, the things we're sitting on, or wearing or what we're filming this on I mean it's all design.
And there are people, stories, creativity and work and history behind every single piece of that.
There are so many different ways that you can use design or work in design.
It doesn't have to be just designing a plastic cup.
It can be totally theoretical, it can be so many it can be performance based it can be a million different things but that, that all kind of share some sort of philosophy of just of trying to kind of move things forward.
Culture, technology and living conditions and humanity forward just a little bit.
It's not about the grand gesture the big idea, it's about the little incremental changes that make things better.
Like just shaving a millimeter of plastic off this cup to make it a little bit more you know environmentally friendly but also cheaper to manufacture, those are just little little ideas.
When you add them all up they end up being massive massive changes in how we live our lives.
[Martha] He was just like you know like well if it doesn't exist we're going to make it.
He was so just into being like, 'now I'm a filmmaker' and I think the confidence thing, in terms of what it means to say you're something.
I hope that is something I can do.
[Ben] Somebody like Gary, who is like, 'I can't fit in any of these frames' I have them laid out on the table and I'm looking at them and I can't fit in any of them.
Like he's gonna design his own and that's what he did from day one.
Punk rock, breaking foreground you know.
And so it kind of hit me like yeah for three years I've just played the 'ughhh I don't really know card.'
I don't know I think that's just something I needed to hear I think.
[Sailor yelling] ♪ [Ben] Yeah today is the last day of the trip.
It doesn't feel like the last day of the trip, it just feels like another day, like going back to all the people we've talked to and all the things I was exposed to.
We had like no idea what we were getting into.
[Martha] It's hard to really put a sensory visceral feeling in to words, on this trip the percentage of times I felt just like 'ahhhhh' everything is right in the world.
This like total kind of mind bliss of inspiration and excitement is probably the highest it's ever been in my life.
♪ [Ben]  Gary was really inspiring in a lot of ways, he went out and just completely dove in head first and immersed himself in it.
It was so refreshing to hear that, especially towards the end of our trip.
It was starting to come full circle.
That one little nugget of information in New York directly relates to Chicago at the science museum when Olivia told us it's just the next step.
You know we've talked to a lot of people that say you know you have the answer inside you but then it's like trusting to take that step in the next direction.
[Martha] But then that answer could change you know, like you thought you wanted to be a physicist and then.
[Olivia] Well see there's the thing too, it's like knowing it's like there's a right answer at the moment but it isn't the right answer forever.
You just have to decide what's next.
[Ben]  And it relates to Eiko and putting that out.
You know the truth inside of you.
[Eiko] The answer is always in you, and your friends and your teachers, your family, they reflect it back to you.
[Ben] What you express to your friends and family is reflected back to you and then you self actualize that truth and then you become that and then it relates to Seattle and Andrea Weatherhead at the Experience Music Project.
[Andrea] Fear is just really  misguided excitement.
So if you can take fear and shift it into excitement about something because it's the same energy, you just need to tweak it and courage is free.
You know courage doesn't take school, it just takes a different point of view.
[Ben]  Ok, I'm indecisive because I'm afraid.
Well fear is just excitement.
Well I'm not really sure, Eiko would say well the truth is inside of you just reflect that out or even if I turn that into excitement I still can't make the decision, well the decision is just the next step, it's not the ultimate decision.
Thank you, well we come to New York and he's like making that next step decision and putting that out into the world, the self actualization is going to come back to you from from the people around you and then it's not so fearful after all.
and then you [laughs] we could do this all day man.
I'll make like a map, not of the cities but just the little nuggets of knowledge that came from each one.
[Camera man]  Yes a knowledge map.
A knowledge map.
By taking this road trip it made me realize how big the world is how much is out there yet how accessible it really is.
You know it's all within reach.
[Sofaya] Like it's all just really crazy things that I never expected to do and see and have done.
[Ben]  And then we went onto sixty four and that's where we saw those crazy thunderstorms.
It's weird because when you think back a month and a half we're all just meeting for the first time but then you just fall into the trip.
Dude Michael Franti at red rocks, like come on, you know.
Richard Hoover at Santa Cruz guitars, are you kidding me.
We stopped at Patagonia and talked to John Rapp, we went out to Malibu and met with Waves for Water, Lany Gratis from Frame Store.
We went up to San Francisco and met with Ben Burtt.
[Blaster Firing] [Ben] Nature happens in Yellowstone and now I look back and I'm like oh man I did that.
[Sofaya] We're very amicable in a way that didn't actually fade the longer we've been  living together.
Thirty one, thirty two.
We didn't do any of these two.
[Martha]  No we went around them.
I think I can keep doing this for another couple of months.
I didn't think I'd love living in an RV so much.
You know we see each other when we're tired and grumpy in the morning and when we have a headache and want to take a nap and when we haven't had our coffee but we have to be this functioning unit.
I thought it was totally beautiful in that way.
[Sofaya]  Martha is learning that  it's cool to like a million different things and there's always a need for that kind of person to make anything run.
She's going to be fine she'll find a home and, like her need to kind of choose something or like her worries that, that's something that she's going to have to do, something that she doesn't necessarily need to worry about as much as she does.
[Martha]  Sofaya was first telling us about how she felt she wasn't a good designer or kind of had doubts about her ability.
[Sofaya]  I hate again, I was gonna say I'm not good enough, but um.
[Martha]  But you are.
[Sofaya]  But I'm not.
[Martha]  You are!
[Ben] You just don't know the application of it yet.
[Martha] That conversation totally  shifted how she approached interviews after that.
[Sofaya] Can you talk about the moment where you kind of made the transition in your brain between this is something that I like to do for fun to this is something that I like and that I'm good at and that I will try to do as a profession.
[Martha] I just hope she gets really excited about something.
She's such a strong passionate personality that I can tell that once she finds it just gonna be like fireworks and crazy, like I'm so excited to see whatever that is like I'm sure she's going to be famous doing it.
[Sofaya] Like seeing Patagonia and  then comparing that to Threadless and then comparing that to Quirky and then comparing that to like Chef Spicer and now thinking back it's like wow I can't believe I did that.
It just kind of changes the opportunities and changes like your perspective on what can happen and that's gonna be a major driving force.
From this point forward I'm not, like I've learned that saying yes to everything just comes out with more profitable like life experiences like five chapters from now, or two or three chapters from now I can believe that there's going to be something cool and awesome for me.
I can do anything.
And I'm gonna just do it.
[Ben] Coming into it, the amount of uncertainty about what I'm gonna do for a career was pretty immense.
I had all these curiosities about what else was out there.
What would it be like if I went and travelled the country for the summer rather than doing the things that I love but are familiar to me that don't expose me to those new ideas and people places and things you know, and that's what I ended up doing.
[Martha] I've been thinking of what to tell people when they ask how was the trip.
I'd guess I'd say you know I spent two months traveling the country with a really awesome team talking to people in all walks of life about life and art and design and happiness and fulfillment.
[Ben]  This trip has a finite end  to it but absolutely nothing about the trip is going  to end.
That's a wrap!
The actual trip will end, but everything that we've experienced is just starting.
♪ [Female narrator #4] Roadtrip Nation extends beyond the program you just watched.
Its a movement that empowers people to define their own roads in life.
Here's a quick snapshot from the Education Innovation Summit.
[Angelo] My name is Angelo Barajas.
I'm 16 years old and I got to Tempe High School.
[Rosaura] I'm Rosaura Carillo.
I'm 16 years old.
I'm a sophomore.
[Jose] My name's Jose Garcia.
I am 16 years old.
[Rosaura] I constantly get asked, "What do you want to do with yourself?
What are you going to do after high school?"
I wanted to make my parents proud.
I wanted them to know that it was for a reason that we came here.
[Angelo] They want me to go to the best colleges and have the best education.
[Jose] I'm really excited for the conference.
[Rosaura] Me, Angelo and Jose got to interview different types of people with different jobs, different careers.
[Jose] And we interviewed them about how their life was, what they did to get here.
Did you ever imagine yourself doing what you're doing right now?
[Leader] Oh god, no!
[laughs] [Anne] I didn't even know that a career like mine existed.
I mean, it didn't really when I was in high school.
[Jeremy] I would say don't get obsessed over one path.
[Steve] The most important thing is that you live your life and not someone else's expectations for your life.
[Jose] It's better to be proud of something you did, then something someone else did.
[Rosaura] Being here and talking to all these different people, it's like, that's something that I want to do.
You never know what you can do until you try it.
If you get a chance, take it.
If it changes your life, let it.
[Narrator #4] No matter what you do [Narrator #5] or where you come from [Narrator #6] You've got wisdom to pass down.
[Narrator #7] Help young people find their way by sharing the lessons you've learned.
Take fifteen minutes to tell us what you love to do.
[Narrator #5] The door's open [Narrator #6] We're all ears [Narrator #4] Become a leader at ShareYourRoad.com