Crunch Ranjani
Transformational Travel Coach
Crunch's mission is to support folks, particularly women, who are going through a big life transition (such as break up, divorce, career change, kids flying the nest) to connect with their deep inner self and desires through the vessel of transformational travel. Having lived a nomadic lifestyle for the past 10 years and traveled to over 50 countries, Crunch has experienced (and still is experiencing!) the power of travel in creating transformation in her life -- and she wants to be able to share the magic of travel with others. Through her highly customized GPS (Guidance & Personalized Support) Programs, Crunch enables and empowers people to take the next steps to living their best lives.
Connect with Crunch...
Substack: crunchranjani.substack.com
Instagram: instagram.com/crunchtini
Website: crunchranjani.com
Facebook: facebook.com/crunchranjani
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/crunchranjani
Full Transcript - Episode 3
Chantelle: Have a listen while today's guest, Crunch, a 2/4, shares her story while you read between the lines. I'm very excited to chat with you, 2/4... you and I don't share any profile lines. So tell me, what does 2/4 feel like for you?
Crunch: 2/4 is the hermetic opportunist, or like, this is my understanding of it. I'm not a huge expert. I've just done reading into it, because I was curious. Yeah, so it says it's the hermetic and opportunist. Profile lines and apparently they are quite in conflict with each other, right?
They are opposing forces, so to speak, so the hermetic, the two in my profile kind of points towards the fact that I need alone time and time to just Be by myself and, you know, be a hermit to basically, escape , [00:02:00] remove myself from other people. And the opportunist part of me wants to be around people, right, so I want to, network.
I want to connect with people. I want to talk with people. I want to get on podcasts, you know, and share what I'm talking about, like what I do and things like that. Right. So those things are indirect conflict with each other. One part of me wants to stay home. One part of me wants to go out and something that, I find showing up in my life over and over again, even within the same day.
It shows up in my other aspects of my personality like I don't know if you're familiar with other kinds of personality tests or whatever but I fall on the line between introversion and extroversion. So I'm right in the middle and that made sense when I saw this, because I was familiar with the introvert extrovert kind of like dynamic before I got into human design.
So when this came out in my profile, I was like, Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, exactly right. Why do I always feel like I like to go out and I'm super social and,[00:03:00] I spend a lot of my time in my life socializing with people, with complete strangers, starting conversations with people.
I do that because I travel a lot. And like, that's literally the only way to make friends, really, when you're traveling, is to just go up and start a conversation with someone. Yeah. Right. But then I also do enjoy just retreating to my room and reading a book or staying on the beach by myself, you know, so like it's definitely always, I wouldn't say it's a constant battle.
But I feel like when I do one thing, whether it's staying at home or going out, I almost immediately need to find a way to get the other bit in as well.
Chantelle: Yeah, that makes total sense. I'm curious in a nomad and travel situation, how do you balance that? What does alone time look like for you if you're in a new place?
And how do you find that you're best able to rest and do that hermit mode when you're in a travel situation?
Crunch: That's a good question and I think actually traveling gives me the freedom [00:04:00] to do that on my own time with my own kind of flow, because I usually travel alone, right? Like, I don't travel with friends or with family, mostly or a partner or anything like that.
So, whenever I need my alone time, it's as simple as simply going into my room and shutting the door. Or, you know, just not putting myself out into social situations. And when I feel like I do want to socialize, I'll take myself to a bar or hang out in the social area of a hotel or a hostel or whatever, or go to an event. Sign up for a tour and then it becomes easy. So I can put myself in situations where I want to talk to people and then once my cup is full, I'm kind of like, okay, thank you. This has been great. I have to go now. Bye. Yeah. And then I just disappear and people are just kind of like, okay, she's gone, alright, whatever.
Chantelle: Do you find when you go to a new place, do you find yourself preparing for both scenarios in any kind of way? I'm curious if [00:05:00] there's any connection rituals that you like to do in certain places.
Crunch: As a ritual, I would say, I I don't really, well, I don't know, maybe I do things as a ritual without realizing that they're ritualistic, you know, like, I do enjoy taking walks by myself in new cities without looking at a map, for example, or without depending too much on Google Maps, so I'll just wander around.
Literally just like, okay, I'm going to go out of this door and then I'm going to turn left. And then, you know, every junction. I played this game sometimes where I take a coin and then at every intersection, flip a coin and say like, either left or right. Just to aimlessly wander and, you know, it takes the pressure off of like, where am I going? What am I doing? And gives me time to just kind of reconnect with myself without that having to navigate connections with other humans, which sometimes I find quite draining.
Chantelle: Hmm. That makes sense. [00:06:00] Is there any space that you gravitate to in a new city where you know, that'll be like the kind of connection that you want or the quality of connection that you want?
Crunch: Not really. So for me, I love connecting with all kinds of people, and the further they are away from my lived experience, the better.
I've always just been intrigued by how other people view the world, right? I don't particularly find it super interesting to keep talking to the same kind of people over and over again. So I do try to, step out of my comfort zone and , go to different places.
So for example, a bar is a perfect place to meet all kinds of different people from all walks of life, right? Like depending on what kind of bar it is, right? I do go to different types of bars because, a bar is a very social environment, but it's also kind of like low stakes.
It's free for all, anybody can come in, there's usually not really a barrier to entry. And, you know, there are different bars in different neighborhoods that cater to different kinds of [00:07:00] people. So like, I might go to a dive bar to, hang out with more interesting individuals or more colorful individuals, and then go to like a fancy cocktail bar if I'm interested in meeting, you know affluent individuals or, you know, like a local pub if I'm curious about the local heritage or whatever.
Chantelle: Oh, that's interesting.
Crunch: I think there are different ways to do this and I mean, I've been doing it for so long that I think it's just become something that I do without thinking about it anymore.
Chantelle: Right. I do think there's an element of ritual there that maybe you just didn't think of in that way.
Crunch: Possibly. That's an interesting question. I'm going to have to like reflect about what I do when I travel now.
Chantelle: Yeah. Are you, when you say nomadic, how often do you like to move around?
Crunch: I'm more of a slowmad, so I have,
Chantelle: I've never heard that before, I like it.
Crunch: Oh really? A slowmad is someone who probably spends like one to three months in a place before moving on, because travel is tiring, right? Like packing your [00:08:00] bag, living out of a suitcase or backpack or whatever and moving constantly is exhausting.
There are certain times in my life that I have done that and found that very fulfilling, but now I'm in a different space in my life with different priorities. So I've chosen to go slower. I have my home base in Mexico. I spend a few months of the year and beyond that I am likely to plan trips, for a month or like three months because thankfully I was born and raised in Singapore and I have Singapore citizenship so my passport is pretty decent.
It allows me visa free travel to a lot of different countries. So, for me, travel has been essentially quite useful. Whenever I get the urge to travel, which is fairly often, I simply just get up and go somewhere and, you know, plant myself somewhere in a city or in a town or in a village that seems interesting or that might be, curious or like have some sort of appeal to [00:09:00] me and just kind of take it from there.
I'm not a very big planner, so that's another part of my human design profile, my inner authority is splenic.
Chantelle: Mm-Hmm. .
Crunch: So that means I go according to what my intuition tells me, right? That's generally how I've lived a lot of my life, making all kinds of big decisions just based on this feels right, you know, this is what my instinct is telling me is the right thing.
And there's usually no rhyme or reason to outside observers, it might seem like, why would you do that? That makes no sense. But I mean, I'm not mad about like, I love where I am at this point in my life. So all the decisions that I've taken in my life have led me to this moment.
Chantelle: You actually basically pre answered my question, but I'll ask it in case there's anything else you didn't share.
I was curious, is there anything else in your chart? That's isn't surprising when it comes to travel. I'm curious if there's anything like channels or like open undefined centers or anything that is pointing towards that [00:10:00] exploration and that experience.
Crunch: Let me think what might be other aspects of it that I don't know something called the unconscious earth is a one.
And that's like self expression. So that has been something that's showed up in my life quite a bit. I've always just chosen my own path and not really followed the typical trajectory that most people's lives take. You know, like, going to school, studying really hard, getting a good job , getting married buying a house, buying a car, working 40 years and then retiring.
That has never been part of my plan. It was a dream of mine when I was a child, I think, but I think maybe that was mostly messages that I received from society, but then as I grew up and matured and realized that none of these things are appealing to me. It doesn't interest me or, you know, pique my curiosity to have a big house or a car or even a partner or children.
None of them sound cool.[00:11:00] Like, tapping into that self expression, that divine creative aspect of myself is how this travel lifestyle, this nomadic lifestyle has manifested for myself, you know. And beyond the travel aspects of it, I'm also more recently seeing my human design profile kind of show up in my entrepreneurship and my business, right?
So I'm a projector. And that means like wait for the invitation and I've always felt very resistant to the dominant marketing messages that you get about being an entrepreneur, which is like, you gotta sell, you gotta, you know, like, do cold DMs and cold calls and things like that and for me that has always just been like, oh, no, I cannot like I physically like, I don't know, just a huge amount of resistance.
And for a very long time before I discovered human design, it was like, oh, you're just being lazy. This is just like a mental blah, blah, blah, blah. But then , after I started reading into the human design profiles , that [00:12:00] kind of makes sense now, like if you're a projector, your, your strategy is wait for the invitation.
It's not to go there and like yell at people about what you do and how you can help them. It's to, I don't know, wait for people to recognize that you can help them and ask for you to be invited to the conversation. So how I adapted that in my business is to publish thought pieces, right?
Like, thought leadership, which I've been doing on Substack and on social media, just kind of like sharing my perspective. It feels better to share into the ether, put it out there and the right person is going to read it and reach out to me. It's not from me to them, like I'm just standing like on a podium and talking, whatever, just sharing whatever I have to say.
And if anybody's interested, like whoever's interested is going to come up to me and say , hey, I like what you're saying, how do we work together, and that is like a much easier space for me to occupy as an [00:13:00] entrepreneur. Like, I have no problems, just writing about the stuff that I do or, sharing about stuff that I do.
And when people ask me questions, I'm super happy to, tell them about things, you know. Like, even being on podcasts, right? That's an invitation for me to come and share my expertise rather than me saying, hey, I want to be on your podcast. Or, like, hey, you should have me on your podcast for all of these reasons, right?
So it's been, kind of like finding that in my, in my profile and like finding a way that to market myself in a way that feels aligned.
Chantelle: I know projectors can really struggle. I've had a lot of projector clients and that's a really common experience that I've noticed.
It's totally true what you say about how there's this perception that if you're not the person doing the outreach, that you're lazy or that you're not trying hard enough or that, well, you must just not want it or like, I think of all the narratives in the coaching industry about that. There's a lot of unlearning that has to take place [00:14:00] from that to just allow the idea that receptivity is just as valid, you know and it doesn't have to be that same way for everyone.
Breaking that narrative is it's worth it, but it probably takes some effort to undo that conditioning of you have to like, go out and get it right. Yeah, I can see how the thought leadership piece that you published on Substack, I could see how that would feel really aligned for you, just based on what you're saying about your chart.
Crunch: It has been a process of unlearning and I still do have those feelings of anxiety when I'm taking a break because, you know, projectors need time to rest and like those ideas and like visions for the future or whatever, right? And that is difficult work. And sometimes I feel like, Oh my God, why am I tired all the time?
Like, I've just been writing one article, , it can't have taken that much out of me that I need to take a nap. Some days I take multiple naps because, [00:15:00] like, it's just not possible for me to keep functioning without that, like, maybe there's something else that's going on with my health that I should look at. I don't know.
Chantelle: No, you sound like a projector with a two line to me. I'm no expert, but I can see how both of those elements, that makes sense. You know what, thought leadership is burning calories in the brain, I can tell you when I, when I sit down and I really think deeply about something it does feel like work, but I also have those moments too, where I'm sitting there and I'm thinking like, this is my life, I get to script podcast episodes, I get to write blog posts and I get to write workbooks and guides for people and that's, I'm just sitting here typing my thoughts.
And that's what I get to do. And then some days when the words aren't coming, you know, and it feels a little bit more difficult. I have those same kinds of thoughts. Like, how hard is it? All you have to do is sit here and type things. It's interesting.
Crunch: That's hard also because, a lot of societies, like, manifesting generators and generators who have a lot of that energy [00:16:00] to keep going, right?
Like, that's
Chantelle: Well, I'm an MG, but I still do get tired.
Crunch: Of course, of course. Everybody needs to rest. I mean, that's a real problem with, our capitalistic society, which I can go off on a rant about for hours, but, you know, like, the dominant narrative is that you gotta keep going, you gotta keep producing, you gotta keep doing stuff to be viewed as worthy or to be viewed as helpful or productive in society and like, that's not a helpful narrative for a lot of people, right?
Regardless of what your human design profile tells you, also people just need to rest, right? And we've internalized these messages of not needing to rest or like, keep going and like, don't take your vacation days and don't take your sick days.
Chantelle: Well, on that note of not needing to work all the time, being able to take rest, you help people do transformational travel. I feel like I've heard of it, but also didn't really process it and think through what that niche was I'd love to hear your take on that. What does transformational travel mean to you?
Crunch: So [00:17:00] I think that all travel can be transformational if you start with an intention about what you want to get out of a trip, right?
And where you want to be at the end of your trip, not just physically, but also mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I think travel is a great vessel for people to reconnect with themselves because I don't know about you, but I found that a lot of people just spend their whole lives kind of living, adhering or conforming to the expectations and opinions and perspectives of the people around them right like your family from the time that you're a kid, and then after that your partner, or like your friends and everybody has an opinion about who you are and what you should be doing and how you should show up in the world.
And what happens if you keep listening to all of those messages is that you forget who you are and what you want to do and what you care about, right? And I think travel is a wonderful space for people to tap into that inner self, to those inner [00:18:00] desires, to start listening to themselves.
When you travel, you don't travel with like, an entire community of people who have the weight of their expectations on you, right, you go by yourself or like with a small group of trusted friends and, you know, I am a big proponent of solo travel, especially for women, just because, it gives you that space to get away and to start listening to yourself.
And also travel nurtures your confidence, your inner trust, like trusting your instincts, because you don't have anybody else to trust when you're out in a foreign country doing things in the world by yourself, and you gotta start listening to yourself, and I think that's a valuable skill.
Maybe this is part of my like, human design profile, that I like to listen to my instincts, right? I want other people to be able to do that as well, because I think we all have some instincts about what's good for us. And we've learned to shut that down along the way. Right, like, because people tell us, oh, no, that's not a good idea, or like, [00:19:00] whatever, and then you start telling yourself, like, oh, actually my instinct, or my gut feel is not right, or like, it's wrong, or , I have no idea what I'm doing, and you start questioning yourself.
But I think when you don't have a choice, you have to get in touch with that part of you, because otherwise you're going to be in very uncomfortable or dangerous, unsafe situations. Right. Right, so. Just helping women create that space for them to travel and to support them to empower them in taking those journeys for themselves, right?
And going on this hero's journey of like returning to yourself. Yeah. I think it is what I specialize in and I'm super excited about supporting people in this.
Chantelle: I can't even imagine what it's like to guide someone towards that kind of a trip and then watch them experience that and then I'm assuming you help them kind of like integrate that. How does that all work?
Crunch: Absolutely. So like, like you said, it's kind of like a three [00:20:00] part process, right? You start from before you even go on the trip, right? Like setting intentions for your trip. What kind of experiences do you want to get? Where do you find your growth edges, right?
Where do you want to expand? How do you want to step out of your comfort zone? And asking all these questions to set those intentions and then during the trip itself, like things can go wrong or you might have like a bout of anxiety and you're just like, I can't leave my hotel room. I can't start a conversation with a stranger at a bar.
Not that you have to, but if you've said that that's something you want to try, then I'm going to help you do that. Right. Just kind of talking through all of those things and also like creating space for you to like reflect on the journey as you're taking it. Right. And then when you come back I think definitely you're going to be changed.
You're going to be a different person. But to the people that you come back to, to them you look exactly the same. Like, you've been gone for two weeks, like, why do you have funny accents, right? But, you know, that's not the only kind of change that happens, right? It's internal. You've become, [00:21:00] you've new perspectives, new ideas.
And so coming back and not having anybody around you recognize that you are a different person can be very jarring and isolating. And it's very easy to let that slip away, right? Like that travel version of yourself. We let that like, Oh, that was just Chantelle on vacation or whatever, you know, like that's Spain Chantelle, I'll leave her behind.
But like, no, we don't want to do that. We want to bring Spain Chantelle into our regular lives so that that wonderful version of ourselves exists today in our real life, right, like in how you show up for your family, how you show up for work, how you are a more carefree or more, lighthearted person in your real life because that's your real life, right?
Most of us can't make travel our whole lives, but we can take some aspect of it into our real lives. Finding that way of integrating that into your life is, I think, something that's very important, very critical, and it's something that gets overlooked so often. And, you know, you hear these stories over and over again, [00:22:00] like, oh, I traveled when I was 20 out of university, and then I haven't traveled since, and now I'm 45.
Right. And it's just kind of like, why not? Like, and where has that person gone? They haven't gone anywhere most of the time, it's still inside you, you just gotta like tap into that again and keep that person alive and fed and nourished.
Chantelle: Oh, that's, oh, I'm so glad we're having this conversation. We have not talked about this so this is going to be news to you, but I'm considering a month in Portugal and I haven't done something like that in four ish years. I used to go for two months out of the year separate. So like a month and then six months later, another month, and I'd go live somewhere else. But I played it extremely safe, you know, like North America only and I was seeking out new experiences, but well within my comfort zone and I've never been to Europe and Portugal just kept coming up [00:23:00] like again and again and again, messages in books that I was reading and I'd hear about it and I'm at the place right now where I'm kind of like looking at dates and I'm thinking about that, but I hadn't considered a lot of the things that you said.
And it's funny because I used to travel with the intention of making connections for the business. That was the main goal. So I would go to a place and I would go to as many events as I could, where I would meet other entrepreneurs. And that's how I built my whole business before, so I still have clients and friends from that first trip to Calgary from five years ago in my business.
And now my intention would be different, you know, which makes sense. We've all lived a lot of years in these last three and a bit years but yeah, it's a really good reminder for me to consider those new intentions and how they might be different. So I'm really glad that that I got to have that realization.
Thank you.
Crunch: Yes, and to further push you in [00:24:00] the direction of Portugal, Portugal is where my journey started, like,
Chantelle: Oh, no way.
Crunch: Yeah, it's where I did my student exchange in university to Portugal. And that was what kickstarted my love affair with travel. So, you know, it's another sign for you that Portugal has something for you, and I'm a big fan of listening to the universe, when you see those signs, like if it keeps coming up over and over and over again like this. It's probably something there that's waiting for you like whatever it might be right like it could be like a moment, it could be a connection, it could be a realization, it could be an experience. You just don't know what's there until you go and find out for yourself. And, you know. Whenever you go, whenever you make that trip happen and however you do it, it's going to be perfect.
Chantelle: Thank you. I'm really grateful for that.
I'm curious when you're working with clients on the transformational travel. Do you find that. there's elements [00:25:00] maybe of your 2/4ness that come out in helping them plan, like, do you find that you have to ever help clients make space for alone time, or I know you must guide them on connection, how to facilitate that. Is there anything that comes up like that, that you maybe do differently, just based on your own tendencies and your own lived experiences, as well as your chart?
Crunch: I think so. I think having the 2/4 in my profile allows me to straddle that line for everybody, it gives me a unique perspective about where you're coming from. Like, it's not like I'm a super hermit or super extrovert or whatever. I can relate to both sides of the coin, right?
So, like, if you're a super extrovert and you're like, Oh yeah, I need to be out at parties all the time, I might, encourage you to consider what part of your inner self are you not getting in touch with, because you are so externally focused and I'm not saying like you have to, you know, go on a Vipassana 10 day silent retreat or anything like that.
Just, [00:26:00] you know, to even spend like 20 minutes with yourself is powerful, is transformational, and it might be something as an extrovert you have not considered, right? And then for introverts, yeah. You know, it's difficult to step out of your comfort zone of speaking to people and maybe that gives you anxiety or a lot of fear, but you know, where is that coming from?
And how can we work with that and find ways for you to use that to your advantage in having deeper conversations with the people that you do connect with, for example. So, you know, I think my 2/4 profile just gives me that middle kind of perspective of like, I get you, and I get you, you know. That's perfect. And I have suggestions for both of them.
Chantelle: Wonderful. Well, we like to conclude the show with a card pull for you. So I'm holding custom affirmation cards created by Christina from Glow Glow Juice HD. And this is from her custom HD deck. I've got the two four cards here [00:27:00] and after we take a deep breath in and out together, I'm going to pull a card for you.
Are you ready? Excellent. Let's take a deep breath in and release.
The card that I've pulled for us today is, I trust my natural gifts and talents. Do I recognize what comes naturally to me as a valuable asset?
Crunch: That's good. Yeah, that's something that I've been working on, trusting my natural gifts, because I think this is something that a lot of people can resonate with as well. Like when it's a gift, it comes easy to you. It's not difficult, right? It's It's something I would do for free. It's something I do all the time. I do it for fun, right? And for me, that is travel.
Everything related to travel has always just been easy for me. Like, stepping out, hopping on a plane on a one way ticket to Buenos Aires, whatever. And that is a gift that I can help other people see how easy it can be, right, that we often overcomplicate things, but, you know, it is kind of like a struggle that I, because of messaging, [00:28:00] conditioning, all of those things to tell you that, like, it's that easy, then you shouldn't be charging for it or that it shouldn't, be something that you use for work or whatever, and also just like an inner perspective that like, if it's so easy, then it should be as easy for everybody else.
But that's not true, like, it's my gift. This is what I see, what I have to offer the world. And it's okay to share that with the world and trust that, you know, it has benefits to other people. Yes, I'm still working on it.
Chantelle: Yeah, it has immense benefits to everyone else. I'm sure of that for you.
So, for those people who are listening, who are responding to the invitation and want your guidance, what spaces are you in that they can connect with you?
Crunch: So you can check out my website, that's crunchranjani. com, c r u n c h r a n j a n i. com. I'm also active on social media, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn is where [00:29:00] you will probably find stuff that I'm posting.
And I also write my Substack which has a lot of random thoughts, and ideas, and perspectives, and interesting bits of thought leadership that I keep putting out in the world that I think are great. So you might want to check that out as well. That's at crunchranjani.substack.Com. And wherever you find me or wherever you connect with me, do let me know that you got connected with me through this podcast.
And I would be super happy to have a chat with you. We can talk about travel. We can talk about anything. Human design. Yes. I just love connecting with people until I need to take a break. And I'll just left you on read for three days and I'll come back, I'll come back, I swear.
Chantelle: Perfect. I love it.
