Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Sutherlin.
Hi Heather, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
A few years ago, I was living in France where my husband and I were renovating a petite chateau into a bed and breakfast. We had guests visit from all over the world and I soon found myself giving tours of the French countryside, Paris, and beyond. I found a lot of joy in discovering a new place to share with guests that would delight or surprise them. My family began to tease that I was a natural tour guide.
During a particularly stressful season, my daughter and I took a vacation together. It was during the long flights we began daydreaming about what would make the journey more fun and less stressful for us. It made me think about how many women I met that longed to travel and see the world, but were afraid to travel because they didn’t have someone to go with them. For them, travel felt stressful, overwhelming and a little scary. I wished I could take them with me so that they could see the world without being alone and afraid.
We moved back to the U.S. just a few months later and a friend mentioned that she was training to become a travel agent. I was inspired. I would build a travel agency for women that made them feel celebrated and empowered to travel. We could host group trips and travel together, creating a community of new friends who love to travel. From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to create a team of women with different backgrounds and different travel experiences who could relate to women at all stages of life. This is how the Travel Bug Girls was born.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Is entrepreneurship ever without a few bumps along the way?
I started a business in an industry that I only knew as a consumer. I honestly had no idea how a travel agency works, or what a travel agent does behind the scenes. I guessed it was just a lot of research and then planning detailed itineraries for guests. That felt easy enough. What I didn’t know was how this business was going to use every skill I’d learned as a teacher, a writer, a graphic and website designer, and every ounce of sales experience I’d ever had. That still left me without any idea how to manage the finances of an agency with multiple agents earning commissions. My saving grace is that I love learning new things and tackling new challenges. I approached every hurdle like a new project and was determined to succeed.
One of the hardest lessons I learned was early on in the process. I wanted to join a training program designed to teach new agents how to start their own agency. This felt like a monumental task, so having an experienced professional teach me was a relief! The program cost $10,000. I decided it was an investment in myself, and set out to find funding. After a quick internet search, I made the mistake of clicking on the first option that promised me business funding at low interest rates. I met with the lenders and talked with them over the phone a few times, and felt certain this was a safe plan to move forward. It wasn’t until the papers were signed that I learned that all of the funding was just credit cards taken out in my name, something I could have done for myself without the $5000 fee the company charged me. I almost threw in the towel right there. But having the debt hanging over me spurred me on to build my dream and pay my way out of the mess I’d created. I learned through that humiliating and expensive mistake how to ask more questions, seek out professional advice before making big decisions, and how the determination to not give up can overcome some of our greatest mistakes.
It certainly hasn’t been a smooth road, but every step of the journey has been worth it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a concierge level travel agency that specializes in travel for women. Girls trips, destination weddings, family vacations, and solo travel… We handle it all. We know how to make each trip more fun and less stressful so that you can focus on what matters most.
The Travel Bug Girls are a team of real women who understand how stressful and overwhelming life and travel can be. Our team cuts through the chaos of travel planning and handles all of the details so that you can finally have that dream vacation without the overwhelm.
We also love working with other businesses who are looking for new ways to engage their followers or create new revenue opportunities. Creating unique travel experiences that align with your brand is our specialty. We make every step easy so you can focus on doing what you do best while we handle all of the travel details for your group. For example, we may design a wine tour in Italy for a local Texas vineyard who wants to turn their email list into raving fans. A tour of Ireland for a local yarn shop. A book lovers cruise for a local book store. A yoga retreat at a beautiful resort in Mexico for local yoga studios. More than just a vacation, these are unique experiences that your clients will never forget.
But what really makes The Travel Bug Girls different from other travel agencies is that we are doing much more than just planning great vacations. We are building a community of women who love travel. We have a private Facebook group women can join called Travel Besties, we host group trips each year led by our agents, and we have a podcast where we share all of our best travel tips and tricks. If you are a woman who loves travel and wishes you had more travel-loving friends, we are your new BFFs.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I’m a huge fan of the book Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller. I’ve read it at least three times already and I feel like I keep getting new ideas each time I read it. Perhaps it’s because it speaks to the writer in me, but I find it so helpful when designing our marketing plans to keep in mind that we are not the hero, we are only the guide. The customer gets to be the hero in their own story. That is so powerful.
On a more personal level, I listen to the Mel Robbins podcast regularly because she is such an inspiration to me. Her story of how she overcame a difficult season in life and the depression that was keeping her from moving forward really hits home. Not only is she insightful, but her guests are fabulous. I often walk away feeling like I’ve learned something new and useful.
Lately, Neil Patel’s YouTube channel has inspired some lively conversation with my colleagues. His ideas about how to maximize the potential of Facebook ads really challenged us to think about things in a new way. We realized that some of our ideas about how things work in advertising are dated now. The world around us is changing fast, especially in advertising. I appreciated the wake up call, and now we are planning to research new strategies every six months so that we don’t fall too far behind again in the future.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://TravelBugGirls.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelbuggirls/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TravelBugGirls/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-sutherlinTBG/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TravelBugGirls
- Other: https://travelbuggirls.com/for-business
Image Credits
Heather Sutherlin
