Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert (Rob) Dorchak.
Robert (Rob), we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Robert Dorchak Jr., though most people know me as Rob. I was born and raised in South Florida and have always enjoyed working with people. My early career included jobs in hospitality, customer service, and sales, experiences that taught me the value of relationships, communication, and serving others.
In 2008, I took a leap of faith and joined the United States Coast Guard. What started as a career opportunity became one of the greatest blessings of my life. As an Operations Specialist, I spent more than 16 years helping coordinate search and rescue, law enforcement, and maritime operations. During that time, I was fortunate to be involved in missions that helped save hundreds of lives while developing leadership, problem-solving, and crisis-management skills.
Alongside my military career, I always had an entrepreneurial mindset. Over the years, I explored several business ventures, including an ice vending business, an ecommerce shoe brand, and eventually the travel industry. My passion for helping people and my love of travel led me to become a travel advisor and later open my own Dream Vacations franchise, Wayfinder4Lyfe LLC. WayfinderLyfe is the name my Franchise is under and how you would find me since there are multiple Dream Vacations Franchises.
In 2022, everything changed when I was diagnosed with Stage 3C rectal cancer. The diagnosis ultimately led to my medical retirement from the Coast Guard and forced me to rethink the future I had planned. While cancer took away many things, it also gave me a new perspective on life, faith, family, and purpose.
Today, I continue helping people create memories through travel while also advocating for cancer survivors and veterans. My experiences inspired me to write my book, 10 Commandments to Survivorship, and develop the #WHOAREMYANGELS App and mission. Looking back, my journey has been anything but traditional, but every chapter has taught me something valuable about resilience, service, and finding purpose through adversity.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, but looking back, many of the challenges ended up becoming some of my greatest lessons.
Early in life, I spent years trying to figure out what career path was right for me. I changed directions multiple times, worked different jobs, left college before finishing my degree, and often felt like I was searching for where I belonged. At the time, those experiences felt frustrating, but they taught me adaptability and helped me develop skills that would later prove invaluable.
Like many entrepreneurs, I’ve also experienced setbacks in business. I launched ventures that never became what I hoped they would be, navigated economic downturns, and watched the travel industry come to a standstill during COVID-19. Building a business often means taking risks without any guarantee of success, and there were certainly moments when I questioned whether I was making the right decisions.
The greatest challenge of my life came in 2022 when I was diagnosed with Stage 3C colorectal cancer. Up until that point, I was preparing for the next chapter of my Coast Guard career and expected to serve until retirement. Overnight, my focus shifted from career goals to survival.
The treatments, surgeries, and recovery process were physically and emotionally exhausting. Beyond fighting cancer itself, I had to come to terms with losing the military career I loved. Being medically retired after nearly 16 and a half years of service was incredibly difficult because it wasn’t how I imagined my Coast Guard journey would end.
Even today, I continue to live with long-term side effects from treatment that impact my daily life. There are still challenges that most people never see. But those struggles have taught me gratitude, patience, faith, and resilience. They have also given me a deeper appreciation for family, community, and the importance of helping others.
If there is one lesson I’ve learned, it’s that life rarely goes according to plan. The key is learning how to adapt, keep moving forward, and find purpose even when circumstances change. Some of the opportunities I value most today only exist because I was willing to keep going when things became difficult.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Today, I wear several hats, but everything I do revolves around helping people, building relationships, and creating meaningful experiences.
I am the owner of Wayfinder4Lyfe LLC, a Dream Vacations franchise based in South Carolina. As a travel advisor, I help clients navigate everything from cruises and all-inclusive resorts to custom international vacations, destination weddings, group travel, luxury experiences, and bucket-list adventures. Some of my specialty areas include cruise vacations, all over Florida especially Orlando with Disney and Universal, European travel, Australia, Iceland, Spain, Italy, luxury river cruises, major sporting events, golf trips, ski vacations, and group travel experiences.
One of the projects I am particularly excited about is serving as the planner and organizer for the inaugural “Cruisin’ with Survivors” group cruise aboard MSC Seashore in June 2027. The goal is to bring together cancer survivors, caregivers, supporters, and advocates for a unique experience focused on community, encouragement, and celebration of life.
In addition to travel, I also founded #whoaremyangels LLC which is the entity behind my book, 10 Commandments to Survivorship, a book inspired by my own battle with Stage 3 colorectal cancer. What began as journaling and documenting my personal experiences eventually evolved into a mission to help others facing life-changing challenges. That mission has continued to grow through speaking opportunities, advocacy work, social media content, and the development of the #WHOAREMYANGELS app, which is designed to provide support, education, health tracking, journaling, and community for survivors and their families.
I also co-own Robo Crave LLC, a robotic vending business that operates automated cotton candy machines. While it may seem very different from travel and survivorship advocacy, it reflects something I’ve always enjoyed—learning new industries, embracing innovation, and creating experiences that bring joy to people.
What I am most proud of isn’t any specific business or project. It is the ability to adapt when life changes unexpectedly. After cancer forced me into medical retirement from the Coast Guard, I had to find new ways to serve others while navigating significant physical challenges of my own. I am facing one of the hardest challenges with major bowel issues so I have to provide for my family on one hand, but I am limited by what I can do. I have not really traveled since before COVID and owning a Travel Agency and not being able to experience traveling like I want to, is extremely difficult so I have to rely on the clients I have sent to places to provide feedback and allow me to learn from their experiences and know how new destinations are. For example, I never been to Iceland, but I helped plan a bucket list adventure through Iceland on their own road trip and the trip ended up being a great success and now I feel confident about booking Iceland trips but hope to get there one day because they said it was AMAZING. My ability to adapt no matter how limited I am is what keeps me going. I am honest, passionate, and loyal with my clients. Sometimes I actually miss opportunities because of my limitations and that hurts but is also why I have a couple associates now. Every business, project, and initiative I am involved with today grew out of a desire to continue helping people, even when my own path looked very different than I originally planned.
If there is one thing that sets me apart, it is that I genuinely care about the clients I do have and continue to book through me and refer their friends to me. I rarely have new clients but never turn down a phone call if someone sees this. With my trained associates, I can assign them to you as their Travel Advisor, and you still get the same service as booking through me. There are 2 brands, Dream Vacations and WayfinderLyfe and WayfinderLyfe is a brand that are experts at navigating through the Travel Industry and delivering top notch service to help people travel the globe and hopefully save my clients money. Whether I am helping someone plan a dream vacation, sharing encouragement with a cancer survivor, organizing a community event, or exploring a new business venture, I approach it the same way I approached my military service: by focusing on relationships, solving problems, and doing my best to leave people better than I found them.
Everything I do is because I love God, treat people the way he said to, have faith, patience, stay humble, and believe that no matter what, I will not give up. God gave me a second chance at life and I feel blessed that I’m even alive.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My biggest piece of advice is simple: don’t wait until you have everything figured out before you start. Nothing is “easy”.
Many people spend years thinking about a business, writing down ideas, or waiting for the “perfect time.” One of my moments when facing cancer was, oh my Gosh, I had started and stopped so many things and had so many business ideas that would have worked but just listened to other people or let timing play a role. There were business plans I wrote down and never even started and now there are things in my life that I started but never finished. Truth is, I never believed in myself enough but now, I not only believe in myself, but I learned to embrace the setbacks. The truth is, there is rarely a perfect time. Most successful people learn by doing, making mistakes, adjusting, and continuing to move forward.
Find something you genuinely enjoy and be willing to put in the work to learn it. If someone else has already done it, study what they do well and then look for ways to separate yourself. If it hasn’t been done yet, maybe you’re the person who should create it.
One of my favorite examples is Walt Disney. What eventually became one of the most recognizable brands in the world started with a simple idea and a mouse. Every successful business, book, invention, or movement started with someone willing to take a chance on an idea.
I also believe people put too much emphasis on failure. I’ve learned that we don’t fail—you either win or you learn. Every setback teaches you something valuable if you’re willing to pay attention. Some of my greatest lessons came from businesses that didn’t grow the way I expected, opportunities that didn’t work out, or challenges that forced me to change direction.
Don’t be afraid to pivot. Life rarely follows the exact path we plan. My own journey took me from hospitality jobs to sales, from the Coast Guard to entrepreneurship, from cancer patient to cancer survivor, author, and advocate. None of that was part of my original plan.
Most importantly, build your life and your business on a strong foundation of values. Skills can be learned. Industries change. Markets change. Technology changes. But integrity, work ethic, perseverance, and how you treat people will always matter.
Whether you’re starting a business, writing a book, creating an app, or pursuing a dream that nobody else understands yet, take the first step. You don’t have to know exactly how the journey will end. You just have to be willing to begin. Do not listen to people around you, just go for it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wayfinderlyfe.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nomad_soulz
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rdorchak
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-dorchak-25169120b/
- Twitter: https://www.tiktok.com/@whoaremyangels
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@whoaremyangels
- Other: https://linktr.ee/whoaremyangels?fbclid=IwY2xjawSGBc1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFIbXlEU0dzaVlidjBJUFAwc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHiyXpAEFoIqBdPaKHo3jwZWTp38XJmVYVHZhjpg3PfaJgljYERhXebU1QQKI_aem_jao-gsOLrzVlrPfHZ09B1Q
