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Health Starts at Home
Welcome to the Health Starts at Home podcast — where wellness meets real life.
Hosted by Holly Jean Mullen, holistic real estate specialist and former functional health practitioner, this show dives into the powerful connection between your health, your home, and how you live.
From low-tox living and healthy home design to metabolic health, mindset, and family wellness, we explore what it really takes to feel good in your body and your environment. You’ll hear real, relatable conversations on environmental health, holistic living, and the unconventional choices that support true well-being, especially for families creating a life of intention.
Because wellness isn’t just what you eat.
It’s where you live. And it starts at home.
Health Starts at Home
Building Beyond the Storm: How One Realtor is Changing Florida's Housing Future | Ep 39
Bekah Manley, realtor and co-founder of Thea Development, shares her vision for revolutionizing how we build and buy homes by blending sustainability, resilience, and wellness. She explores how current building practices fail to withstand severe weather events and why integrating nature's wisdom into construction creates healthier, more durable homes.
• Started in real estate after witnessing Hurricane Michael rebuilding efforts that repeated the same vulnerable construction methods
• Advocates for 3D printed concrete homes that can withstand 245 mph winds versus current building codes requiring only 160 mph resistance
• Challenges the "build cheaper" mentality by showing how it passes costs downstream through higher insurance, energy bills, and health problems
• Emphasizes designing with nature instead of against it—stopping practices like clear-cutting land before building
• Creating resources to help homebuyers and realtors ask better questions about building materials and construction methods
• Shares insights about Destin, Florida's unique qualities including its 99.9% quartz sand and strategic location for fishing
• Promotes collaboration over competition in the sustainable building movement to accelerate positive change
Connect with Bekah on Instagram @bekah_lauren, Facebook, or at barefootwithbekah.com to learn more about holistic real estate and resilient housing solutions.
Your home should help you heal—not hold you back.
If you’re ready to explore how your environment could be impacting your energy, mood, sleep, and overall wellness, you’re in the right place. The Health Starts at Home Podcast is here to help you rethink health from the inside out—starting with where you live.
Curious about your symptoms or feeling “off” at home?
My free Body Wisdom Journal is still available and now includes prompts to help you track not just food and mood—but also your environment. Because sometimes, it’s not you... it’s your house.
→ Download Your Free Body Wisdom Journal Here
Connect with me on Instagram @hollyjean.healthandhome for real life, red flags, and wellness real estate tips you won’t hear anywhere else.
New episodes drop regularly - subscribe, share, and leave a review if this show speaks to you.
Because health starts at home—and yes, that includes yours.
© 2024 Holly Jean Mullen
Welcome to the Health Starts at Home podcast, where we explore the connection between our health and the home environments we live in. I'm Holly Jean Mullen, functional wellness practitioner turned real estate pro, here to help you rethink how your space impacts your sleep, stress, hormones, mood and everything in between. No topic is too taboo, From hidden toxins and frequencies to healthy building design and smarter home buying. We dive into what most people aren't talking about, so you and your loved ones can feel better in the places you spend the most time, Whether you're health conscious, health curious or just exploring the rabbit holes of why you might be feeling off. You're in the right place. No pressure, no perfection, just real conversations about things that matter, Because health starts at home, but it doesn't stop there, so let's get to it. Hello, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Today I am excited to introduce you to Becca Manley. She is a realtor who gets it. She is not just someone who's out slinging houses. She is someone who is helping people find homes that align with their values and their health and the season of life that they're in. And Becca takes a whole person approach to real estate, where she is blending sustainability, intentional design and a deep compassion for the families that she is serving.
Speaker 1:Through the work that I've just seen her doing through social media, I can tell that she is thoughtful, that she's a visionary and one of those few voices out there in this industry that is helping to raise the standard, and not just for how we live, but how we're feeling in the places that we live. And she is also the co-founder of Thea Development, where she is blending regenerative tech and ancient wisdom to rethink how we're building homes, and it's for healing and for resilience, and not just for now, but for the future and for things to come. And I love that Becca is not just talking about wellness. She is building this framework for what's next to come for the industry. So welcome to the show, Becca.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. That was a beautiful introduction. I so appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I first found you just recently because you shared a reel of this gorgeous home in your market and, like, the home is stunning, so the home itself is enough to just like stop anyone's scroll. But your caption is really what prompted me to reach out and want to connect with you, because it sounded like something I could have written myself. It sounded like something I could have written myself and it wasn't just about like the square footage or the finishes, but it just went on about how the home felt and I knew. Right then I just wanted to know more. I wanted to hear I do want to hear more about that property and the builder, but first I'd really like to hear more about you and your story and how you got into real estate and what pulled you into this wellness focused niche.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a little bit of a loaded question, so I'm going to try.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No, no, no, I mean so I'm going to jam it in there down as much as I can.
Speaker 2:So I actually got into real estate kicking and screaming. That was not something that I really ever thought I was going to do. I was sort of like, oh, everybody, and their mom is a realtor, like I don't want to do it, but I will take you to. It was 2018. So Hurricane Michael had just hit, my fiance and I were hired by the Gulf County TDC to film the aftermath of Hurricane Michael. And so while we're interviewing, you know grown men that are fighting back tears to like recall the events all the businesses were not recognizable, all the homes are just like completely destroyed, and so we were hired to come out, film that and then come back three months later to film their rebuilding efforts. So we go back three, three months later and you know, and I hope to see innovation, and you know I'm like, oh, yay, we're rebuilding. And the point of the videos was to say, hey, we want everybody to come back because we are rebuilding. So while we are there, I'm looking around and I was like we're rebuilding, the exact same thing that we just saw get destroyed. Like you know, we're calling it resilience, but it's just repetition, is what we're doing? And throwing a few extra straps on the roof and calling it a day, and so that was the first little spark that led me into real estate.
Speaker 2:Now, real estate how I actually got in is a very long and little bit of a woo-woo story, so I won't take you through it. But once I got into real estate, since that sort of sparked it, I started working with Corcoran Reverie, and that's still where I'm at now. Absolutely love it. And so a lot of the homes that we were asked to come into were all like big luxury homes and very much maximizing square footage and anyways. But while I was looking at some of the homes, I was like, if something comes through here, like a storm comes through, this house is going to be gone and another family again is going to lose everything.
Speaker 2:And so I fast forward and went to my broker, was like listen, like you know, if we are going to be rebuilding things, can we make it more sustainable, can we make it more resilient? Can we make it more this and that? And by the time I was done, she was like listen, I love the idea, you know, I'm going to give you full reins and I'm behind you 100%. But you know, this isn't really my thing, so like you handle it, let's go. So she was the first, like little push that got me into this and gave me the confidence to be like all right, you know what I'm gonna look at a different way of building.
Speaker 2:So there you go, so now I'm in real estate, and then that fast forward to how I got into the resilient housing, and that's whenever I really started looking at just different types of building methods besides your traditional sticks. The fact that we build with sticks in Florida is absolutely insane, and so 3D printing was the first thing that I really came across. That I was like, oh my gosh, like what a cool technology and you can actually get houses up much quicker and it's all concrete. So it's actually more sustainable as far as resilient wise. And then and then started playing with those ideas. So that's actually more sustainable as far as resilient wise, and then started playing with those ideas. So that's how Thaya was born. So I don't know, does that answer your question? I feel like I gave like a timeline, but that is the short, very, very condensed version of how Thaya was formed and how I got into this to begin with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know that's it's really cool. I mean, in Oklahoma we don't have hurricanes, but I mean we have the same kind of crazy weather where people are starting to ask the same types of questions too, and it's like, why are we building homes that are not able to withstand the weather that we have here, or, at the very least, building homes that have, like, safe rooms or shelters in them, so we don't have to be seeing things get demolished? And there is a select few people that I do know that are exploring the same kind of technology that you're talking about with the 3d printing and the um, the concrete homes. So tell me, what has that been like for you, like, how is that process going?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, it's an excruciating process.
Speaker 1:Like, how, like with permitting, with work, like what.
Speaker 2:So let's see how would I put this. So 3D printing has been a thing for an actual, very long time. One of the first 3D printed buildings was actually in I believe it was 1939. Like. So most people don't realize.
Speaker 1:They didn't even know they had printers.
Speaker 2:I know Now, granted, at the time you know they're, you know, hand pouring the concrete in there and everything. So it's a lot different now. But to say that the technology has been around and sort of been evolving over time. So Icon is a huge one. That's in Texas. Most people have heard of that one. They just I think that they just now got done with their 100 home community Like. So they've been absolutely killing it. And then in our area it's popping up more and more in Florida.
Speaker 2:So since I'm here in the panhandle, I'm sort of I always like to call it like lower Alabama. I'm sort of I always like to call it like lower Alabama. I'm not really Florida, I'm lower Alabama, but the most beautiful part of it I. You know, in my opinion I'm very biased, but I absolutely love this area and so there are a lot of developers that are already have their stronghold in the area. So that makes it a little bit difficult, and especially at the state level, because a lot of developers are very, very involved at the state level, because a lot of developers are very, very involved at the state level with the politicians. So sometimes the standards I don't feel are up to where they need to be, and it's a lot of factors like that.
Speaker 2:One change is scary. You know, people are always scared of things that they don't understand, and so this is a newer technology to this area. So people are very hesitant about it and so nobody really wants to be the first one because, oh my gosh, like what's it actually going to do? And you know, and there's the learning curve with it. So that's sort of been whenever I'm saying like excruciating part it's.
Speaker 2:It's sort of been like you know the funding for it and then having people to be okay with this completely new method and let go of like what you know and let's jump into something that you don't really know, and and so anyways, and just Florida, with how it is, it's, it's just been a you have, you have a lot of your good old boy systems that every place has, and so that's what's sort of been the difficult part. But luckily, because of the conversations that we've had, my fiance is currently mayor of Destin and we've got to be in the room with a lot of these different politicians and decision makers at that level and what's really cool is, once you sit down with them are like OK, you know, here's the problems. Here's what I'm thinking. It got them to sort of see it in a different way, and now I try to talk about as much as I can so that people can get more used to the idea because it is different. So it's just trying to get people used to the idea, because change is scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I understand it being scary in the sense that it is different, but also on the on the same note, there's such this like trend and such this push for things to be sustainable and like that's really trendy and for like things to be green. So it could also be something that more people are starting to embrace. But, like you said, with this kind of good old boys like mentality because I too am in a state with kind of that same kind of thinking I could see how there would be some push back there. But I'm glad that, like, once you do get to explain it and at least have people see your passion behind it, then that it's a little more well received, I would think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, and keeping in mind, here in Florida we, because of the hurricanes, we are, our insurance is out of this world right now and insurance premiums are huge, and so that's so everybody's like, how are we going to fix the insurance, how are we going to fix it? And so this is sort of what I propose, and not even, and I'm not even saying just using 3d printing technology. My whole thing is just build better and don't build with the two by fours that a five-year-old in karate class can hit through, and you know, and we're in a humid climate, so you're already going to get rot, you're going to get mold, you're going to get termite, you're going to get all these things.
Speaker 2:Then you wonder why your insurance is so high. People right now builders are like oh well, we've got to build cheaper. Oh, we've got to build cheaper. I'm like, okay, but you are paying for it. The consumer is paying for it, whether it's with their energy systems like their HVAC, their AC and all of that. They're paying for it, you know, with their insurance premiums. Or they're paying for it in medical bills. If you're building with toxic materials, you're living in a toxic environment. So what I am sort of trying to push is like if we can just splurge, if you will, on the front end and just get it right the first time, then that that way you're not passing that cost on to downstream, because the cost isn't going anywhere if you're just pushing it downstream yeah, it's just deferred exactly.
Speaker 2:Um, so that's what we're. I'm trying to sort of get that of like okay, if we want to fix the insurance, if we want to have a different result, we need to do things differently. And so that's where I have a passion for let's change the building standards. It's changed every three, but they're only stepping it up like a little bit at a time and I'm like y'all, we are so far behind. We got to take one giant step and I know it's scary, but we got to take one giant step to get us where we actually need to be for our standards in Florida.
Speaker 1:And do you know what that would be like if you could, if, if someone were to come to you and be like OK, Becca, we're going to do whatever it is Like. What is that one change that needs to happen right now to really make the difference?
Speaker 2:That's a great question, I would say, as far as the wind loads go, and it's and it's different all over Florida and it's different all over Florida. But for instance, in our area, the building code after Hurricane Michael it was your house had to be able to withstand, I believe it was wind loads of 140 miles per hour. Hurricane Michael come and they're like, okay, well, we're going to raise it to 160 mile per hour. Well, Hurricane Michael had wind gusts of 211. So what is the 160 going to be really doing?
Speaker 2:And you know, World Economic Forum came out and was saying that they're looking at adding a category six hurricane because so many are getting so close to high fives. So I'm like, okay, we already know that they're getting stronger and they're getting more frequent. So if I was to say one change and it would in this one change would create a sort of ripple effect, I think is raise those wind loads up to at least like 220 mile per hour and and that would allow, you know, the builders that you know are doing with concrete or building with nature, and that's where my building with nature and doing biomimicry design will actually help with those wind loads as well. But also, I don't think you'd be able to build with sticks anymore here, because I just don't think that they can handle it.
Speaker 1:That was gonna be my next question. I was like, can that be done with, even like the current materials and practices, with the way things are being built now?
Speaker 2:So I guess, Some of the tests that they're doing with the 3d printed buildings now, um, it's showing that they can withstand wind loads of 245 mile per hour winds Um. So that would be massive. But you know and you're honestly, you're not going to know until actually in hurricane does come through, um. But there's a lot of different things that I'm looking at, besides just the building and just the materials itself. I'm looking at how the house is designed as well as using nature, like building, like nature.
Speaker 2:Right now everyone is coming in and clear, cutting the land and then building something. I'm like oh, I have a sustainable home. I'm like you just destroyed the land, you know. And then you wonder why you have flooding problems. Well, you don't have the trees there to suck up the water. So that's where I'm like y'all. Nature has showed us how to be resilient.
Speaker 3:Like.
Speaker 2:Take mangroves, for instance their roots, like their root systems and like cacti, how they store water to keep cool, like nature, has all the answers. We just forgot that we are part of it, and so we keep treating nature as an obstacle versus using it as you know, the framework for what we're doing. So that's where you can do codes with the different structures, but I think we need to take it way more far like, way farther than that, and actually start making better laws about how we deal with the land and stop clear, cutting all the trees and then wondering why you have flooding. This is insane.
Speaker 1:And that's also going to help all the agendas for climate change and everything too. It's like. Stop cutting down the trees.
Speaker 2:I know it's so funny. I was talking to someone that said they're like oh, yeah, they were talking about you know. Oh, we're going to give, like you know, money for if you can design something to capture carbon out of the air, and we're like you mean trees, like what are you doing?
Speaker 1:So silly, I know. Sometimes it really is just that simple and that backwards. It's like come on now. So did you take classes and study and stuff at the building biology place, or is this all like self-taught? No?
Speaker 2:this is all self-taught. I really want to, though, because I actually have quite a few people that have actually gone into the building biology, and I think it's fascinating, so I would love to just to educate myself more on it Right now. It's just been straight up visionary looking at nature, looking at what we're doing and being like these. This isn't going together. Something needs to change. It's been like common sense yeah, everybody's favorite term lately, common sense. Yet we're not using it, it, it, it bugs me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So you mentioned that you're like the only realtor in your area like you doing what you're doing. What has that been like and like how are you received by other real estate professionals?
Speaker 2:Oh man, for a while it was definitely like a what the hell does that even mean? Like in sort of like laughing about it and whatnot. And honestly, I don't blame them, because at the time I in my head had holistic realtor as something completely different than what I am now, and at the time it was just incorporating all of my love for, like health and wellness and all the things into real estate. But now, as we've already been talking about, now it's expanded to like the actual home itself and the environment and how it affects all of it.
Speaker 2:Um, so, so whenever I first started, I was probably laughed at and I probably should have been, to be honest, um, you know. But now you know, now people will be like oh my gosh, oh yeah, you're the holistic realtor, so it's. But I also used it as a strength to gain that attention. Um, cause, it went from just being in a sea full of realtors to like, oh, you're the holistic realtor and um, so it's actually now what I took as a weakness is now a strength. So, um, now I'm being received better versus whenever I first started and people are like oh, okay.
Speaker 2:But I think, even between even the video you were talking about of how I do real estate videos and how I deal with clients, and just my passion behind all of this, that's what actually differentiates me from people, and I now think that, four years in, people are finally seeing that side of it. So now we're good, but no, I don't know any in my area that are doing this and if they are, I haven't been able to find them.
Speaker 1:So no, there probably aren't, because I mean, I don't think there are very many of us like in the country. I was talking to my husband the other day and I was like if I had to guess, like on the very aggressive side, I would say there's maybe, maybe 200 in the whole country of all the realtors.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Maybe I was going to say a hundred, so you have way more I think I really think it probably is a hundred, but I doubled it just because probably I'm sure there are people that aren't on social media or doing stuff, but there's got to be others. Yeah, but even still 200, I mean, that is a drop of water in the ocean of realtors in the ocean of realtors.
Speaker 2:So, and it's hard, especially in my area, of finding the vendors as well, or just the subcontractors, if you will.
Speaker 2:on just like everything I've been to too many events on my vendors but the subcontractors for everything, even like the, you know, for the HVAC and for plumbing, and and builders that actually do it correctly, because there are some that do it correctly. But I have found one and you know, in my eight years that I've lived here, I have found one builder and it was just recently that I was like oh my gosh, I didn't know you existed. Thank you for what you do Like with building and with healthy materials and building a healthy home, versus just throwing them up real quick and hoping for the best.
Speaker 1:So yeah, now I don't think you're alone there in all of those things, because it's the same here and everyone that I've talked to or heard from it kind of seems the same across the states where it's difficult to find contractors and builders that kind of get it, or even if they do, they run up against the same struggles as us is finding their suppliers or their contractors that also understand it. So, but I also see things changing. I see people becoming more receptive and at least more willing to hear and learn and try to make changes.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think that you know AI and all of that has helped that, because now people have all the information at their fingertips to say, hey, is this material healthy or you know whatever? They can search anything. So and and I think it helps with podcasts like yours, where I think more people are going from just listening to the news, you know, where it's all opinionated anyways, and actually looking at podcasts to get their information because it's not as filled. So I think that just the information, the education, because you know people just don't know what they don't know, and so I think all of it comes back to just educating, educating as many people as we can and learning as much as we can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I really see this healthy home space growing rapidly and tremendously in the years to come, especially like this post-COVID era where people went home to work and a lot of people never really left, and so we're one taking health more seriously and more perceptive of health and what actually that means, because it is more than just like what we hear on the news or from our doctors. There's a lot more involved in it, but also the time that we're spending in our homes and how much our home environments impact like not just our health in terms of, like the materials our homes are built with, but how we feel in our homes and how, how we just interact with our homes and our communities. And there's just so much more to it. And I think people are really starting to understand that and embrace it.
Speaker 1:And I kind of started the same as you when I got into real estate. Like I came from the practitioner world and so I came into it like health, health, health, health came from the practitioner world and so I came into it like health, health, health, health. But even just through my own evolution and like through my clients evolution, it all just comes back to no, it's a much bigger picture of just like how you feel, and it's not just one thing, and I see it changing.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, wellness real estate is is it's just taking a step back and looking at the whole picture, and the whole picture has a lot of pieces. So, and you can tune in on whatever piece you want and I think we were talking about maybe before we started recording, but I know that I've had a lot with with saying holistic real estate. It's something specific with mold and and like it's been like, been like a oh, help me with mold, or I've been in mold and like all these kinds of things, and that is one part of it absolutely uh, but there are so many other pieces uh to it as well. So it's just the wellness real estate is the whole picture yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely up and coming for sure.
Speaker 1:I mean it's 400, it's like 400, like 2030 but something recently saying that the wellness real estate industry is going to be surpassing wellness travel oh, that's interesting. Yeah, I, I don't doubt it so it's like um for for the mold thing. Like I, I, I get my fair share of people that are very concerned about mold. Um, moving from mold, which I totally get and understand, um, do you get a lot of clients that are specifically looking for, like special mold, testing and stuff, or not so much?
Speaker 2:Um, I've started to that. That's been newer for me. So I mean cause, in all honesty, that is not my strength, so I can, like I know the people and I can connect people to them, but I now that's been a big thing that I myself have been trying to learn more about, and it's because I've now had more and more people that have been through horrible experiences and have had horrible things psychologically, physically, mentally, emotionally. All the things happen due to mold Physically, mentally, emotionally all the things happen due to mold. So that is something that I now have been like really diving into to learn more about, because that wasn't my certification by any means. So, but yeah, it's happening more and more and again, it's coming from just not building the correct way. It just comes back to that. Yeah, it just comes back to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean I think a lot of it also goes to how we actually take care of our bodies too and like. This is not like a dig at anyone or anything and it's not taking blame off of the building environments, but I also think it's one piece of a bigger picture in this huge puzzle of health and it's it's just so nuanced, you know and I it's just a very complicated picture, but that's great. Like our jobs as realtors are just to be connectors and so to just to be aware and to know who to point people in the right direction, that's that's really our biggest role.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've told multiple of my clients that when we're like walking through homes, I'm like, listen, at the end of the day, I'm here as your realtor. I am here to make the process go smoothly, like other than that you're going to know if the place is for you or not. We have more neurotransmitters in our gut than we do in our brain. Like you are going to know if the place is for you or not. We have more neurotransmitters in our gut than we do in our brain, like you are going to know if it's for you or not. And then I can help, as far as you know, especially if it's a new construction build, and that's where, like, I have more passion for is because I'm like, okay, well, what did we build with? What's the flooring, like you know.
Speaker 2:So that's when I can, that's when I can shine, is whenever I can go into places like that and start asking the developers questions. And what I want to do is I'm trying to get more and more realtors to educate them on here's just some questions to ask the developers, because I've had quite a few developers that will have a new development and I will send them my list of questions that they should be able to answer and they like will not get back with me. And I'm like yep, because I guarantee like you have not looked at any of this. So I just really want and I'm creating an e-book now where I'm like oh good, I was just going to say yeah, you helping us with this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, because I have. I've had a lot of people that have asked me now and I'm like, yes, I want to create a ripple effect, to even get realtors to be like, hey, you need to ask these questions about the build and then also inform your clients of it. And now it makes you more valuable to your clients too, because now you're asking questions that they probably wouldn't have thought of If us, as realtors, weren't thinking of them. Why would the client think of them? They're mainly concerned about the square footage and how many bedrooms and all that kind of stuff you know.
Speaker 2:But with the internet, I think more and more people are now concerned and I have some certain clients that you know, no LVP flooring and I'm going to go into a house and I need natural light and I need this and I love it. I love it that they're already educated on a lot of that, but most people aren't. So I think it's super helpful to have and, like I said, I'm making an e-book on it to to have these questions at your disposal that you can say hey, client, here's your questions you can ask Even if you don't use me or even if you move to a different state. Like, knowledge is power. Start asking these questions and then I'm hoping that that'll create a ripple effect to get the developers and builders to start building better, because they know that people are going to be asking about it.
Speaker 1:Hey demand. Consumer demand drives change.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. So that's the hope.
Speaker 1:Okay, and that will be. Will that be on your website? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and whenever I do, I'll make sure I link it up to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So I'm still working on it, but, yeah, that is something I'm wanting to get out sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I have not been down to Destin yet, but everyone in Tulsa, that is where they vacation and I see all these gorgeous pictures from seaside and like the ocean there is so beautiful and the sand just looks like powder. I've been. I've been to Miami a bunch of times. I've been to Orlando. I've been I've been to Miami a bunch of times. I've been to Orlando. I've been to Bonita Springs. I've been to like the other side where they launched the rockets. I don't even know what.
Speaker 1:I've been all over Florida but I've never been to Destin, so what makes it so special? Like not just a vacation spot, like what's it like to live there? What's it like in the wellness world there?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, great question. I love this question because I love talking about Destin, so you definitely need to put it on your list If you have not ever been to Destin or 38 area.
Speaker 1:It's on my list.
Speaker 2:Which is what you're talking about with Seaside and all that. That's part of 38. But if you ever get the chance, definitely come and visit, and so what makes it special? So the first, my first and favorite fun fact about Destin is so the sand here is 99.9 percent quartz. Most people don't realize that that's why it's so beautiful that's why it's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:Um, it actually had washed down from the Appalachian mountains after the last ice age and after the different processes that it went through, all that was left was the quartz, and it dumped out about 100 and I think it's 170 miles of beach, and so from Pensacola to Panama City. So that's why all of our sand is so beautiful, and Destin is smack dab in the middle. So that's why we tend to have the prettier sand that's not mixed with all the shells and whatnot that you would see when you get closer to either of those other sides. So that's one. The second thing about Destin that I love so much is so we're known as the world's luckiest fishing village.
Speaker 2:I'm not big into fishing. I am. It hurts my feelings. I used to be. I grew up on a big farm, but I was like no, I can't do it. But if you like fishing, you would love it here.
Speaker 2:And the reason for that is because we're known as the world's luckiest fishing village, because we are actually the closest port to the I don't know how to put this the largest depth of water, the deepest water. So, versus places, you have to go 50 to 100 miles offshore to get to that deep sea, deep sea fishing, you actually have to go only 10 miles from the destined shore, so we are super close to that. We also have the Chocta Hatchee Bay, and this is another thing of like why our water is so beautiful here. So the Chocta Hatchee Bay, all of the rivers flow into it first, so it actually allows all the silt to settle before it goes out into our Gulf, and so that is why you can go to Pensacola, panama City, and the water isn't as blue as it is or emerald color as it is here in Destin.
Speaker 2:And it's because of that, because of the Choctaw Bay, which also houses all of the juvenile fish before they go out. So that's why, oh, and because of the current in the water here, all of the migratory fish also come through here. So that's why we can get marlin, we can get grouper, we can get like anything that we want as far as fishing goes. So if you like fishing, this is definitely the place to go. We have the largest fishing fleet in North America. Definitely the place to go.
Speaker 1:We have the largest fishing fleet in North America, right here in little town of Destin.
Speaker 2:Wow, okay, yeah, it's a town of 14,000 residents, but we have around 5 million visitors a year. So little town with big city problems, but it's a great area, absolutely beautiful area. Um, and everyone here. Once you move here, you realize how small the community is and it's a very tight knit community and and that's what I love about it is because everyone here, no matter what they believe, like you know, no matter what side of anything, that you're on, politics or whatever everybody genuinely wants what's best for this area and we are like in our own little bubble. So I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2:And as far as you were asking about the wellness side of it, the wellness is now, is now picking up I like to say that I've manifested it. That's what I like to say. Yeah, where I first moved here, I was like there's nothing wellness related, but now there is more and more and I'm actually creating this, yeah, on fire. For, you know, release, renew, reconnect. Oh, they do yoga on the beach here, they do sound healing here. So I'm trying to incorporate all of it so that people do have a locals guide, you know, along with little hidden gems, and that makes Destin so special that most people wouldn't know about unless you have the guide.
Speaker 1:So, being such a small town, do you find like, do a lot of people like grow up there and stay there, or is it more of a place where, like people move in?
Speaker 2:So I would say I wouldn't know the data or like percentage on it, but a lot, I mean a lot of the people I know anyways, and then maybe it's just because I am more involved with, I guess, the politics side with my fiance's position, just because I am more involved with the I guess the politics side with my fiance's position, but like all of them like grew up here. Like you know, one of the councilmen that is on there is Destin, is Dewey Destin, like named after you know his granddad or whoever. So, like I would say, a lot of people, if they grew up here, they definitely stayed here, and then the, and then there is a lot of transplants here because Destin is only seven square miles.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so small.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, so Destin itself and that's, you know like, not including 30A area, which is what you were talking about with Seaside and whatnot.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful too, and these, these communities together, and what I love about 30A is like there's so many different types of communities, smaller communities, but all different types, from from Artsy, which would be like the Grayton area, to you have like Seaside, which is probably the most famous from the Truman show. If anybody's ever watched that, you've got Rosemary that has sort of like that European look to it. So we have all whatever you want, we have it here somewhere Like as far as whatever vibe you want to live in, there is a community for it. So that's what I love about it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that sounds very neat. Well, I'll definitely have to go down. Like I've been in Tulsa now four years and it's been on my list. I see people going all the time and they come back and they post all these pictures. I'm like I know California doesn't look like that. Like I love my beach, I still love California, but it doesn't look like that. It's beautiful and I want to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and living here. Let me just tell you, if you do, if anybody that lives here, when we go on other vacations and say it's on a cruise or something, we don't go to the beach because we're like we've got the prettiest beach, we're not going, we're going to do this instead. So we've gotten a little spoiled now that I have lived here, because of the sand, because of it being quartz. It doesn't get hot, so you're not like walking on fire. It actually stays cool to the touch and it's like powdered sugar. Basically is how it feels. So we are very, very spoiled here, for sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, I love it. Well, all right. So how can people connect with you? Learn more about what you're doing, follow along on your journey. All that good stuff, I know I found you on social, but are there better ways?
Speaker 2:So I mean, social would probably be the best way Right now. I just now got through creating my website. I'm not a website builder, so if there's any glitches let me know but I just created my website. So it's barefootwithbeccacom, and then I have the social, which is the one you have me on Becca. Underscore Lauren is my Instagram, and I'm combining my personal and business, so that's where I'm now pushing everything to. Is that one, and then, of course, facebook as well, and and I'm on TikTok and all the things not not that active on TikTok, though. So I would say Instagram, facebook and my website are probably going to be the best bets, for sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I'll definitely make sure I link those up. Is there anything else like that you're just burning with desire to talk about or touch on that I might have missed.
Speaker 2:I don't think so. The only thing that I've sort of been trying to I guess the point that I've been trying to get across in a lot of things besides just that let's change the building standards and all this is when we work together, we get places a lot quicker. So what I've found, especially in the construction industry and even like looking at 3D printing technology, everybody wants the same thing, like everybody wants affordable housing, we want resilient housing, we want sustainable housing. Most people do that you talk to, but a lot of times we get in our own way. Ego gets in their own way.
Speaker 2:So, versus sharing knowledge and momentum and all and resources we turn into, let me protect my turf, because I want to be the first one and I'm over it, like I'm so over it. So what I'm wanting to do is I'm trying to combine all of the different industries of like, hey, we all want the same thing. We will get there a lot quicker if we work together. So, if there is anybody that hears this and would love to collaborate, I'm all about collaboration over competition, because I just believe that that's the way we have to go. Again, like nature, look at nature we have to learn how to work together All of nature works together to make amazing things, and that's what we, as humans, need to be doing too.
Speaker 2:So if I had a closing message, that would probably be it.
Speaker 1:I love that and I will sing in chorus right along there with you. Like, for a movement as big as this and as important as this, we cannot self-sabotage it by hijacking it with our own egos or with that fear, like you said, of like someone else taking it from us. The gatekeeping is not going to get us anywhere. We need to lead with vision, we need to lead with collaboration and with integrity, because you're right, at the end of the day, we do all have the same goal and we will get there much faster and much more efficiently doing it together. So I support your vision, I support your goal and any way I can help you get the word out, then I support that too.
Speaker 2:So I'm really glad to hear you say that yeah, thank you so much. That means a lot. So, yep, I'm on your hear you say that yeah, thank you so much. That means a lot. So, yep, I'm on your team. Thank you, and I'm on your team, so that works.
Speaker 1:Good, good. Well, I have loved this conversation. I definitely want to stay in touch and, for those of you listening, I hope that this leaves you thinking differently about what home really means and what community really means. And until next time, I guess, uh, keep asking better questions and keep building a life in a space that you feel good in. So thanks, like it.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much for tuning in. If you found this episode helpful, please leave a review or share it with someone who needs it, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss what's next. This podcast is not affiliated with any brokerage and is the sole creative work and opinion of me, holly Jane Mullen. All content is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing shared should be taken as professional medical advice, real estate guidance or legal counsel. Please always consult the appropriate licensed professional before making decisions about your health, your home or your finances. The views and opinions shared by my podcast guests are their own and don't necessarily reflect my views or those of this platform. So until next time, remember health starts at home, but it doesn't stop there.
