Introducing Mitali
In today’s episode, we’ll be talking to Mitali Deypurkaystha. Vegan since 2012, Mitali Deypurkaystha, helps vegan and ethical experts, influencers and entrepreneurs put their mission, movement, and message on the map, so that together they can change the world, one book at a time.
She is a keynote speaker, owner of The Vegan Publisher, a book consultancy, and the 100% vegan-owned Let’s Tell Your Story Publishing imprint.
She is also the author of the international bestseller, The Freedom Master Plan, which reveals how her clients leveraged their books to amplify their voices and build unshakable authority. This allows them to attract clients, media attention, investors, donors, and passive income streams while boosting their visibility, sales and profits.
Her mission is to amplify the voices of vegans and ethical leaders globally, so the screams to end the exploitation of animals, humans and the environment will become too loud to be ignored.
In this episode we discuss:
- Books she wrote.
- Couch surfing in different regions
- Her experiences in different parts of the world
Learn more about what we talk about
Other World Vegan Travel content connected with this episode
- S4 Ep15 | Hottest New Vegan Spots in Paris for your Next Trip | Franck Adende
- Top 4 French-Style Vegan Restaurants in Paris
- S2 Ep 16 | Vegvisits – Like AirBnB but better | Linsey and Nick Minnella
- Nine Best Tips For Vegan Travel Anywhere
- Tips for Easy Vegan Travel in France
- First Ever VEGAN Korea Trip? | Verena Erhart, Kim Giovacco & Donna Zeigfinger | Ep 85
- The Vegan Stay: The NEW Platform Connecting Vegans and Sanctuaries | Faik Bouhrik | Ep 82
Connect with Mitali
Transcript
Brighde: Hi everyone, listeners to The World Vegan Travel Podcast. I’m very excited to welcome Matali Deypurkaystha The World Vegan Travel Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today, Matali
Mitali: Thank you for having me.
Brighde: We have been corresponding and checking in with each other for a few months now. We’re both parts of the Vegan Business Tribe community. So would you mind spending a few minutes just telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Mitali: Thanks for that. Yeah, I’m Mitali I’m The Vegan Publisher. and I work mainly with vegan, plant-based ethical, sustainable, eco-conscious entrepreneurs, business owners, and brand owners, and I help them become published authors for marketing reasons. A lot of these people just want to get more visibility, and more eyeballs on what they’re doing. and they want to get on podcasts. They want to become keynote speakers. They want to share their knowledge and their wisdom with the world. And of the best way to do that, a shortcut, if you will, is to become a published author. People take published authors seriously. So that’s what I help them do.
Brighde: And you are a published author yourself and you’ve got quite a background in the publishing world, I’m really curious about that.
Mitali: I’ve written eight books in total, seven as a ghostwriter. And then the final one was my own book, The Freedom Master Plan. I was happy just writing books for other people. was more than happy, I wrote my seventh book as a ghostwriter and I realized, I’d finished it in under six weeks, five to six weeks. The first book took me in comparison over 18 months. So I’d realized that after seven books I’d created without knowing it, a structure. I suppose if you just do something again, you do get more efficient at it, and you do, maybe not consciously, but subconsciously you create some sort of rules around it. I just had this brainwave, why don’t I just teach people my structure, and how I do things, and then I can actually affect more people? and it’s worked. Today I’ve helped people publish their books. only in the space of two and a half years. I would not have written 18 books in two and a half years. But that’s 18 people who have now published authors because they used my process and they were able to write books.
Brighde: And do you specialize in fiction or nonfiction?
Mitali: Strictly nonfiction. Strictly nonfiction, mainly because I’ve never written fiction before, so I’d feel like a fake I was saying that I can help somebody write a children’s book or a memoir or dystopian fiction or anything like that cuz I’ve never written anything like that before all of my backgrounds, I come from a journalist background, so then when I moved into copywriting and ghostwriting, I’m writing fact-based books so these books were designed to turn my client into a thought leader for them to be taken seriously in their field, for them to get media attention, journalists asking them for quotes, asked to speak as a keynote speaker. That’s what these books are designed to do. So specifically that ‘is what I teach now in my publishing business.
Brighde: I collaborated with a friend about eight years or so before World Vegan Travel, and I wrote a little book called 12 Months Till Vegan and was, you know, nothing too serious, but I thought it was okay. I thought it was okay. I got it professionally edited and spent a bit of money on that.
It never really took off properly because I just didn’t have a clue about marketing and book launches and stuff. So maybe I should try again another time. But yeah. As somebody who doesn’t really call themselves a writer. Actually, I did have quite a lot of fun bringing this whole thing together and it really was a pretty cool process yeah, I’m glad I did it even if it wasn’t, a super bestseller or anything.
Mitali: the wonderful thing about books is unless you’ve written something that dates very quickly so for example your book was about how to do Facebook marketing in 2013 a lot has changed on Facebook since 2013 it sounds like what you Showing people how to become Vegan in 12 months would say that’s now more pertinent than ever. There are more and more people wanting to become vegan in 2022 than when you released your book So absolutely you can do a relaunch You can even add just some new content in there and create a second edition. That’s the wonderful thing about books they never really die the very first book I wrote for a client was back in 2014 and he’s still leveraging that book to this day, it’s getting him, and his clients, it’s winning him it’s getting him to keynote gigs To this day he’s using it and I reckon he will carry on using that book for the next decade and the decade after. So as long as you’ve written something that’s evergreen and it sounds like you you can relaunch it easily
Brighde: I’ll have to keep that on the back burner for sure. I’m really excited to talk to you about an interesting topic that I don’t think we’ve actually really discussed on the podcast before, and it’s something that you have done for, you did do. I don’t think you do it so much these days, but certainly, a few years ago, you were couch surfing and you used Couch surfing as a way to travel around the world. So before we get into why you did couch surfing, tell us a little bit about what it actually is.
Mitali: So Couch surfing was it’s no longer which was one of the reasons I stopped Couch surfing unfortunately But was a nonprofit I was to it I think back in 2007 or 2008 and it was a way for people to be able to travel and yes make it cheaper to travel because if you are staying with somebody in someone’s house it’s called Couch Surfing you literally can give somebody a couch It’s not incumbent on you provide them their own apartment or their own room or anything like that although you can do you actually just state that in your profile what you can provide somebody and then you can also be a Surfer so you can go and stay around the world with people and yes it does make things a lot cheaper because let’s face it accommodation is sometimes if a lot of times usually more expensive than the flight is cheaper than the accommodation at times So it definitely made things cheaper which meant that I could see more of the world. But really what Couch Surfing was based on back then was it wasn’t so much about saving money and later on as I started to make more money in my career I found that I spent so much on my host that it was equivalent to what I would’ve spent in accommodation anyway. The real heart of Couch Surfing back then was all about cultural exchange so for example I’ll give you an idea I was surfing through Norway for three weeks So having gone from different hosts around Norway cuz I really wanted to get to know that particular country and one of my hosts in Bergen in the Southwest of the country I didn’t realize that while I was surfing with him it was literally during the general election. The Norwegian general Obviously I had no idea and I didn’t realize I knew that he was in the political field I didn’t realize he was the socialist candidate for Bergen so I spent that weekend with him out canvassing for socialism and now this is what I mean by when people say money can’t buy experiences this is the kinda experience that literally money can’t buy you. You could be as rich as some oligarch in Russia or one of the Sheiks in the Middle East and you couldn’t buy that experience. You know that is just a literal case of just being there at the right time with someone who takes you into their lives and when you are a tourist a lot of the time sadly you are being shown what to should be shown. You’re not really getting underneath the skin of what is this culture like and what other people really like couch surfing for me is a way for me directly meet real people whose job isn’t to entertain me and show me what a tourist should see but literally let me into their lives and what they’re doing And for this gentleman his life at that moment is I’m a candidate so you are coming with me I’m like Oh okay guess I’m gonna know Bergen really well now knocking door to door and telling them why they should vote for my new friends now But it’s an experience I will never forget in my life.
Brighde: As you recounted that experience, it was reminding me of this incredible experience I had in Morocco when I was tour leading in Morocco. I had a week off and I decided to go to this town that was a little bit off the beaten track a little bit, I would say, and it wasn’t Couch Surfing. But I just got chatting to this wonderful, Moroccan young woman.
She was a bit older than me, I would say, and I got chatting with her and she actually invited me to her house to stay for two or three days, which was incredibly humbling that she did that. And I decided to take her up on that offer and I stayed with her and her two other sisters, her mother, and her father for two or three nights I think it was. And I had the most incredible cultural experience I could ever have, possibly, probably the best cultural experience I’ve ever had in my entire life. Apart from, some little welcome gifts and, contributing in some way, it was very cheap. I slept on the floor in the same bedroom as all of the other daughters. We went to the Moroccan hairdresser, which is like a special space only for women. And we had our makeup done and we had henna done. And it was really quite a remarkable experience.
Mitali: That’s how Couch Surfing came about the original owner of Couch Surfing pretty much had a similar experience to you the problem he found was that you are now hoping that will just happen You got lucky that you met this wonderful woman and the whole reason this gentleman created couch surfing to be more proactive about it to actually facilitate these meetings of people who want to exchange cultures and I love that and I’m still all about that, unfortunately, Couch Surfing has become for profit which I really it changed everything It then started to become like a poor man’s Airbnb God love Airbnb I use them all the time but that’s a completely different thing Airbnb is all about you need somewhere to You’re not really having a cultural with the host or anything like that and like that so unfortunately, Couch Surfing changed but I have some amazing memories from my year’s Couch Surfing
Brighde: Yeah, there are still some really great platforms in which You can do some sort of exchange like I know, for example, Willing Workers on Organic Farmers is one. There’s The Vegan Stay as well, which is kind of similar as well. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that. I interviewed Faik uh, the founder of this very interesting project. So there are a few going around, but now maybe there’s even a replacement for Couch Surfing, but when you are looking for stays on Couch Surfing, maybe now or in the past, what are some things that you try to be mindful of? Or are there any sort of particular things that you do before you agree to stay at a place?
Mitali: Definitely Couch Surfing you had a profile in the same way that you would have on social media and people can leave you references the biggest thing is you know someone who has a lot of references that was a really good way They’ve got this not just with Couch Surfing with all kind of references issue is that sometimes you would not want to leave a bad reference with somebody they might leave a bad reference for you So I can see that references aren’t a hundred percent work because of that issue But the thing is numbers do count if you don’t want to leave a bad reference because you are worried that you’ll get a bad reference you just don’t leave a reference You know really if someone’s leaving positive references then you know this is a good person there’s that. Another thing that’s good to see and I think this is now easy to do with social media. You have to remember when I was couch surfing which is about 2007 2008 to about 2013 14 Facebook had arrived. LinkedIn was still around but not many people knew about it Instagram hadn’t even turned up I don’t think Twitter was Twitter I don’t even think I’m not even sure When Twitter turned up social media wasn’t as big a thing as it is now So another thing I always see is like people who are going to be problematic tend to be people who don’t get involved. That tends to be my understanding. People are really other people. Even if they want to do something that might not be correct They’re they’re thinking about the fact how is that gonna affect their standing within a particular group or a particular community there’s that whole thing of people being good when we’re in a community So that’s another thing on Couch Surfing There used to be groups and different areas had different groups and I would see who was in those groups participating and what would happen is those groups will have you play pub quiz night I had that here in up in the northeast of England We used to have a big couch surfing group in Newcastle and we would meet quite regularly. So even when I wasn’t traveling I was still surrounded by Couch Surfers but I obviously didn’t need to Surf with them I’m home and they’re home as well and all around the world, there would be these groups of Couch Surfers So that was a great place. Now I think it’s even easier because you can now go and see and look at that person’s profile You can actually see what groups are they involved in and what they’re doing. You can see a lot I would say people now overshare in some cases on social media. So there’s a lot of stuff that glean always do your due diligence The biggest thing I would say is please don’t just think of it in terms of a free place to stay Um really is no such thing as a free lunch. So even when someone is giving you a free place to say it’s for example this lady She gave you a free place to say cause you just thought Wow this is gonna be such an interesting few days with this lady learning about her and where she comes from and how she does things So there was something in it for her. There are always people who don’t just do things there’s always something in it for that person. That’s just how human beings are. So if you are just thinking in terms of money it might be problematic Then you could end up with somebody who might do you harm. Or at best who ends up becoming completely uninterested in you cuz they don’t feel like they’re getting what they want to get out of Whereas when you lead with the fun that you’re going to have what you’re gonna do together what you can teach them what they can teach you, the value is there to have those conversations before you agree to stay with somebody what are we going to do and if that person is full of beans and talking about all these amazing things that they wanna take you and show then you know you can see that people don’t tend to unless you’re dealing with a real psychopath. And then I’m sorry with you if you’ve actually managed to meet one of those but the average person doesn’t go into it’s a bit like lying almost have you noticed and people are truthful They can go right into detail but when you lie you’re quite vague It’s the same thing it’s the same kind of thing that’s happening unless you’re a psychopath and then you can lie very extensively?
Brighde: There is a big segment of the population that really loves to show people around their town. Like I’m the same when we have house guests, I just can’t wait to show them around and just show them a little bit of an insight as to what it’s like in a place. Take them to some favorite restaurants or amazing views or something like that. And, I get a real kick out of it, and I think that’s what hosts get out of it too. Have you hosted?
Mitali: Oh my gosh So I’ve hosted think close to 50 people in the space of those years from all over the world and again it really helped me because it’s I always used to see it as traveling without traveling I’m able to get an understanding of another culture without leaving the northeast of England So I loved it I think probably my most interesting Couch Surfer was a lady who had it was a first trip outside of China and she’d come to the UK and I was her first host and she spent four days I believe with me and trying to work out because she on the second day I thought Okay typical British person let’s go to the bar I’ve got a few friends there let’s go She’s like Oh I’ve never drunk alcohol before, but I’ll drink it if you are drinking. Oh no not on my watch You are not not giving you alcohol if you’ve never drunk alcohol before No, that just scared me But then I thought Okay so how do we And it made me think on my feet So Okay so I can’t do the typical British thing let’s go to the pub and have a pint that kind of thing that we do So are all going to be drinking soft drinks and what are we doing to have fun and and you just start to adapt, but then I start to speak to her about So tell me more about why you don’t drink alcohol Tell me more about culture And it all came out that alcohol wasn’t a big thing in their culture it’s more food based And there was so many similarities to my Indian heritage And I explained to her how I’m always find it really weird when I go and see some of my English friends it’s Tuesday evening for example and they’re opening a bottle of wine to go with their meal And it’s just for me weird I’ve adopted Let’s go crazy on a Friday night kind of drinking every so often don’t do it very much now cause it nearly kills me but I didn’t adopt the let’s just drink alcohol . Periodically all the time That bit of me has stayed very Indian cuz Indians don’t do that We’d rather have a cup of tea than a glass of wine We’re just not really bothered about beer or wine or anything like that unless it’s a big celebration and we’re doing something so then she says Oh yes I do have some Chinese friends who really do have big nightclub nights and that sort of thing but we don’t have alcohol in the house So it’s all about just asking those questions, and then always say there’s far much there are far more things that make us similar to each other anywhere in the world that is different
Brighde: Yep. I would agree with that for sure. And you’ve Couch Surfed in many different places. Can you tell us some of the destinations that you’ve Couch Surfed?
Mitali: Okay So Morocco was one of them So I’d definitely been to Morocco I’d been all the way around Norway uh Sweden Denmark, several times in Germany, several times in France, and then moved over to Asia so parts of India, Thailand. Actually lived in Thailand for a while and then also Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Singapore. Um Because of my career and I was able to get to a certain level of income it got to say I was probably spending just as much if not more on my host wanting to be that gracious Surfer than I would’ve done if I’d just got accommodation Especially in Asia where accommodation tends to be cheaper than Europe anyway. But that’s not what was about it it was the experiences. I remember being in Kuala Lumper and staying with a host I was meant to stay with him for two nights but then he told me that after I left he is traveling inland into the country because he was going to his cousin’s wedding And he was like if you could stay a little bit longer I could take you So it’s I was like Oh my God I’ve never experienced a Malaysian wedding. I was just so excited So then, of course, we had to go now cuz he was like but you can’t wear Western clothes I’m like Oh you tell me what I to wear and I’ll go wear it So off we went and then we had a really fun day going through the bazaars and again a place that I would never have found in Kuala Lumper cuz there was this whole marketplace behind the City of Kuala Lumper behind the two I’ve forgotten the name of the two big towers. But just behind that there’s this whole marketplace that the tourists don’t even see cuz it’s not signposted it’s well the locals go to buy things when they’re on a boat like it’s called an Abaya like a full-length flowy dress. So I’ve still got that Abaya I think it’s beautiful. Money can’t buy experiences I still use it Couch Surfing does have an app now can do if you’re in a country it just uses location and it figures out where you are and then it shows you all the people all the Couch Surfers around you right now So now I really use it just to meet people I don’t really use it to stay with people anymore. Like I said it’s changed now It’s before it was an outright ban on you taking any money as a Host from a surfer It really was all about cultural exchange.
But then it started to change I think it started to or maybe want to compete with Airbnb and then the quality I started to find the quality of hosts started to draw people who were in it for the as opposed to the cultural exchange. So I stopped doing it but I still use Couch Surfing just to find people and it’s wonderful cuz it means that wherever I go even as a solo traveler I’ve got new friends that I could be making.
Brighde: Do you have any other interesting couch-surfing stories to tell? Any duds or any really incredible ones?
Mitali: Gosh I dunno if this is incredible but it’s like probably someone that I met that I really felt why have you not written a book? I was in Sicily I was actually there for a friend’s wedding but I just thought if I’m gonna go to Sicily. I always have this excuse If I’m gonna go there for a celebration or even a work event I will then just take another week off after to use that time to explore the country. If I’m going to spend all that money and time and effort getting somewhere I might as well then stay there after the event and see the country so I decided to spend a week after my friend got married to explore Sicily. So I was there with a friend who decided to stay with me for an extra week. We just we were just hungry We were just walking Sicily Sicily is very tiring cuz it’s all cobbles, so it’s a bit like walking in Durham all day I dunno if Durham’s a cathedral city just half an hour away from where I live and it’s just all cobbles so it can be wearing on your feet. We found a little alley and then there were two restaurants and there was one restaurant on the left and one restaurant on the right we just thought didn’t really matter they all seemed like they were doing really nice pizza and pasta So I thought let’s go. So we ended up going to the war on the left. We went in there and got some amazing Sicilian food It was absolutely stunning, and then this the owner decided to just ask us where are you guys from, then we started talking, and then he said Would you mind If I pull up a chair and actually sit with you while you eat and yes of course so there’s so now he’s talking we’ve finished our food He then brings on another bottle of wine and says I’m not charging you you’re my friends Now we’re thinking it’ll be it’d be rude not to indulge with you now It’s a gift It’s rude. So then another bottle came out This is now the restaurant is closed everyone’s gone home even the staff has gone home It’s now about half 12 half past midnight, but he’s just he just wants to talk to me and my friend, and then out comes his story cuz I start to ask him to tell me more about this restaurant Like how long have you had it What made you want to create this and et cetera et cetera And out comes this story that he is half Moroccan Half Sicilian. His mother is Sicilian, and his father is Moroccan basically whole love story came out of how his father met his mother in Sicily, but they couldn’t be together because she was Christian and he was Muslim. So there were the typical star-crossed lovers really and then what he used to do is to make an excuse to come and see her cuz she had family and family would not be happy that he was seeing her he would sell these amazing Moroccan tomatoes so much flavor, so than the Sicilian tomatoes he would basically make an excuse every couple of weeks bring these tomatoes and she was like I need these tomatoes for cooking. And that is how they met they basically conducted this whole relationship over the space of thinking about 18 months with him pretending to sell these tomatoes to her so they could meet and then she ended up running away with him to Morocco and getting married. And then finally when both their families calmed down, they actually moved to Sicily and they had him, the owner that I was speaking to now both of his parents had died but he commemorates them by using this specific Moroccan tomato in all of his pizzas and all of his pasta dishes.
Brighde: What a great story.
Mitali: And I was like why is this not on your cause I looked at his website where’s about nothing I was like people will come from far and wide eat at your restaurant because of that story. Otherwise, you’re just another restaurant it was 50 50 I was gonna go into that restaurant another one across the street anyway But if I’d that story I would’ve never mind would’ve been in competition even if there was a closer restaurant elsewhere I would’ve walked to that restaurant to taste those tomatoes that brought this these amazing two people together these star crossed lovers So that that sort of always stays in my head about we have all of these amazing stories and I see that I in my clients you know they’ll come to me with a book idea and I’ll say yes Okay so this is a book idea but obviously we need to humanize you as well. So the book shouldn’t just be about, for example, your book I’ve not read your book I’m I’ll make sure I will now but your book is all about how to become a vegan in 12 months However I hope you’ve put a lot of yourself in there.
Some people don’t realize that they need to put their own journey cuz people yes want a solution to a problem they also wanna get to know you they wanna know who are you and why are you doing this. And that’s where your personality can really shine this gentleman had this amazing story, this amazing personality, and his restaurant was great but it was doing okay It should have been packed to the rafters every single night and it would be if you just shared that story So I guess that was a big lesson something I teach my clients now Share your story share your mission, Share why you do what you do and not just what you do.
Brighde: Yeah, I’m that story as you recounted it. You just did such a lovely job at recounting it. Like it should be a film as well. Can you imagine it like the Sicilian countryside?
Mitali: He loved this tomato so much cuz he represented his parents he even created infused oil with this tomato and I had to buy a bottle. It was just like after that story and it was stunning I’ve never had I’ve never thought of tomato-infused oil all I’ve heard of infusing with herbs and spices and stuff
but Tomato is that gonna work Oh my God It’s one one of the most delicious oils It’s the of oil that you feel it’s almost blasphemous to heat up. It’s so beautiful It should be left virgin and you should just pour it on salads or bread or something You should not heat it cuz what an absolute waste that would be cuz it just changes everything and the taste disappears it was absolutely stunning that even that I can if he just put his story out there some way bet people come just to buy the oil?
Brighde: Do you happen to know the name of the restaurant off the top of yours?
Mitali: He’s actually he’s now retired the restaurant doesn’t exist anymore
Brighde: Oh, okay. So it must have been like maybe just after the war or something like that that his parents fell in love just after the Second World War?
Mitali: Cause he’s retired now Yeah So you can imagine how difficult it was for them And there are issues now right now with people getting together across religious divides but back then you can imagine it was just something that didn’t
Brighde: Any other interesting Couch surfing stories or people that you met through couch-surfing that inspire our listeners?
Mitali: I’ll tell you the one that is in Paris So Paris was really interesting. So I spent two weeks in Paris Couch Surfing with different hosts. What was really entertaining about Paris is they have these what I don’t know the French term I don’t speak French but it translates to ghost stations we have them in London as well with the tube so there are stations where No Trains go to anymore So they’re just ghost stations However in the UK with huge amounts of health and safety and all that kind of stuff a lot of those can’t be accessed if there are accessed and you do anything there you could be fined. There are usually signs saying if you trespass you could be arrested et cetera. Such a no such thing in Paris or it wasn’t back then I don’t know if anything’s changed. It was quite regular For young locals and young Parisians to have these huge parties on railway lines. I remember we did that and we decided that we were just gonna have this huge party in this ghost station which was incredible. But then we ended up finding was you can go in where the station was and you can put the music there and suddenly you’ve got these amazing acoustic. Like I heard music that I’d heard before many times in a completely different way because of the acoustics of being in a tunnel.
Brighde: Yeah, I actually follow this YouTuber. He’s really cool. He’s British, but he’s based in Paris. He’s called the Tim Traveler, like the time traveler, the Tim Traveler, and he’s really interested in abandoned places or just quirky things. And he’s done a few videos that explore these ghost stations in Paris and they are extremely fascinating actually, just, and sometimes there are actually tours of these, like once a year they’ll open up to visitors so that you can go and check it out and it’s, all safe and nicely organized and everything. But yeah, and it’s through those connections that you have with these local people that, that you would’ve ended up there in the first place.
Mitali: And then the other funny one that I had was so backpacking around Sweden just remember getting to Malmo and it was one of those unusually hot days, it was scorching And I was with I think eight Swedes. One of them was my host and he’d brought his friends with him were all the sweetest Very fair skin very blonde and they were literally burning and not one of them had bought any sun cream And then me the only very dark skin person brings out factor 50 and they’re going why are you got factor 50 It’s I must have known that I was gonna be with a lot of stupid Swedes who are going to burning and risking skin I felt I was being charitable to Sweden that day.
Brighde: It’s interesting the places that you’ve Couch Surfed in are typically quite expensive European destinations like Switzerland and Scandinavia. I know it’s not just about saving money, but what a great way to travel for perhaps a longer period of time than you normally could have by couch surfing. And of course, you have to expend a little bit more effort and be a little bit more prepared to exchange something, but yeah, what a great experience. I love it. I love it.
Mitali: I think the reason why I was because I wasn’t I think if you’ve just got off traveling And now I feel jealous of people now because there’s so much opportunity to just work remotely now so you can just go off When I started Couch Surfing back in 2007 2008 although the internet was a thing I definitely had the internet then it really wasn’t as evolved as it is now So I was restricted in that I had to keep coming back for work.
Brighde: I haven’t got to Scandinavia yet. Absolutely want to go. It would be so interesting. Matali, thank you so much for sharing your couch-surfing experiences with our listeners. And even if Couch Surfing couch surfing.com isn’t quite the same as it was then I really invite listeners to consider traveling, and participating in some sort of exchange because it will just absolutely enrich your travel experiences. I know I have definitely had that throughout my travels for sure. You certainly have and you still can in 2022 as well.
Before we say goodbye, can you share with our listeners how they might connect with you? You are doing a lot of really interesting stuff in lots of different places and how people can reach out and get in touch with you.
Mitali: The best place to find me is just, to go to my website, theveganpublisher.com. So it’s the Vegan publisher.com. And yet it’s, you can get in touch with you there. you can find me on social media with a ridiculously long surname like Deyperkaystha there. There really isn’t. I’ve actually checked, I actually the ego wanted to find out if there were any other Deypurkaystha and there, there aren’t, just my brothers and sisters. So we’re the only ones that exist.
Brighde: And you’re quite active on LinkedIn as well, I believe.
Mitali: Yes, that’s my favorite. Cuz I think because I’m working with professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners, and brand leaders, they tend to hang out on LinkedIn. So that’s where I tend to hang out. So I would say definitely that’s the easiest one to get in touch with me. But I am on other platforms as well, so if you prefer to get in touch with me on Instagram or Twitter, or Facebook. Then feel free I’d love to, maybe you’ve got a book idea, or you maybe already an author or you just want a little bit of advice on how to get it out there in a bigger way. Get in touch.
Brighde: Fantastic. Thank you Matali for taking the time to share your stories with our listeners. We really appreciate it.
Mitali: Thank you for having me.
