or putting the Bond car - I thought that would be the coolest job. That was always my dream job, putting Reese's Pieces in E.T. I wanted to do advertising and product placement in movies. It took me a good six months to come around.

For me, on the other side, I wasn't necessarily in it for a business. Then over time, it actually really evolved into what it is. He said, 'If you want to give us some of your products, then we'll take photos of it and just give you the photos or we'll share it on our Instagram in cool places all over the world.' That was the pitch initially. When we were leaving, we went to an outdoor retailer, just a big trade show in Salt Lake City. Especially travel influencing, it just wasn't a thing. Jessica: In 2015, influencing wasn't quite a thing. Tell me a little bit more about that and how using content from your life can be this type of business and how you're the poster child for that. It's not like, I started traveling, and then we realized, hey, we have a concept. He started Instagram and YouTube from the start. There was a way to make this dream a reality and also a brand. What I found really interesting is that from the outset of it, he had a plan that you were getting sponsors. Anyway, then he was so unhappy working in a nine-to-five job. It wasn't my idea or anything, but funny. Zibby: His name was Bill Gross, the founder of Idealab. They're like, what? Why? When I read this and it's like, and then ten years later, he made Scan and sold it for millions of dollars to Snapchat, I'm like, oh, my gosh. I remember telling people, I work for Scan. Nobody was like, why would anyone look at the barcodes? Of course, it came and went in two minutes. One of the ideas that the founder had was a company called Scan where we would scan barcodes and all this stuff.

In the book, you talk about the journey of, first of all, the sale of Scan to Snapchat. It really was a beautiful be a part of it. Then being tied to the National Geographic brand was an honor and a dream of mine. Then when National Geographic came around and pitched me on this idea of having a very visual book, I was sold immediately. We had been approached a few times by publishers. About four years ago in 2020, we got an email from National Geographic. We share everything on social media, Instagram and YouTube. Now we're almost eight years later and almost to a hundred countries with our three kids in tow. Four months of travel turned into three years full-time travel. We decided to hold off buying a house or settling down and do a little bit of traveling. I think we were twenty-eight or something, twenty-nine. It was at a point in our life where we - Garrett, my husband, had started a company. Jessica: Back in 2015, my husband and I, we took off on some travels. Zibby: For those who are not, first of all, familiar with Bucket List Family Travel as the brand and the whole thing, talk a little bit about that and how the book became an outgrowth of your brand. Zibby: It is really nice, and to be like, kids, look, I worked on something, and you can now hold it too. To have worked the last four years on something that I'm like, look, I did this, I was thrilled. I think as moms, a lot of times, you don't have something to show for all your hard work. Having it in my hands, I was hoping that would be the moment it felt real.

I love that so much, when you see an author step into it. Zibby: I watched when you were so emotional opening your books on your birthday. Thank you so much for coming on 'Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books' to discuss Bucket List Family Travel: Share the World with Your Kids on 50 Adventures of a Lifetime. She highlights the transformative experiences her kids have gained and how incredible it has been for all of them to embrace spontaneity and the value of other cultures. The discussion explores her and her husband's intentional approach to building their brand, incorporating content creation and sponsorships from the outset. Jessica shares the origins of her family’s adventures (it involves selling an app, making some money, and traveling instead of buying a house!). Zibby speaks to Jessica Gee, mom in the mega-popular Bucket List Family, about NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BUCKET LIST FAMILY TRAVEL, an indispensable and beautifully illustrated guide with fifty destination itineraries and countless expert tips for traveling with kids.

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