Some people spend months, or years, talking about starting a travel business before they ever take a real step. Lindsay and Kathy are not those people. A conversation at a dinner table turned into a decision, and that decision turned into LNC Travel Agency. Within weeks of graduating from Careers on Vacation®, they were booking clients consistently, running automations, and had already brought two new agents onto their team. This is their story, and it is worth reading if you have ever wondered what it actually looks like to start a travel agency from absolute zero and build something real.
The Decision That Started Everything
Lindsay and Kathy did not come from the travel industry. There was no professional background, no existing client base, no inherited book of business. The idea came up at a dinner with friends when the topic of travel agents surfaced, and something clicked. They looked at each other and thought: we could do this.
That instinct was the beginning. But they were smart enough to know that instinct alone does not build a business. Kathy found Careers on Vacation® and pitched it as the right first move, given that neither of them had experience running a travel agency or any business at all. They enrolled together, went through the curriculum on the same timeline, and committed to figuring it out as a partnership.
Going through the program as a duo gave them something that most new advisors do not have, a built-in accountability partner who was learning the same material at the same pace. The program itself creates a strong community of support, but having someone to text at any hour when a module felt confusing, or when the execution felt overwhelming, made a real difference. As Kathy put it, there were many moments where they looked at each other and said thank goodness we are doing this together. Because even with community around you, building a business involves a lot of solo hours, and having a partner in it changes the experience entirely.
What Careers on Vacation® Actually Gave Them
Before they could start a travel agency properly, they needed to understand what properly even meant. Careers on Vacation® provided that structure from the very first module. The program walks new advisors through every foundational layer like forming an LLC, choosing the right host agency, building operational systems, setting up automations, developing marketing, and creating a consistent client experience. Nothing was left to guesswork.
One of the clearest ways this showed up for Lindsay and Kathy was in the host agency selection process. When they joined their host agency, they noticed quickly that other new advisors in the host’s online forums were asking questions that the pair had already learned in Careers on Vacation®. They would text each other: we covered this in COV. That advantage is not a small thing, it’s the difference between stepping into a new role with a foundation and stepping in while simultaneously trying to figure out what a foundation even is.
The program also helped them understand something important about how to move through a curriculum that covers a lot of ground: you do not have to have every module fully executed before you move to the next one. That permission to keep moving, to work through the material even when you have not implemented everything yet, took pressure off and kept momentum going. The real value of lifetime access to the program became clear once they graduated and could return to earlier modules with real-world context around the material. A module about automations hits differently once you are actually managing clients and can see exactly where that system needs to live in your workflow.
Booking From Day One and Growing Faster Than Expected
Within weeks of graduating in November, LNC Travel Agency was already moving. Friends and acquaintances started reaching out wanting help planning travel, and Lindsay and Kathy were ready. They were not scrambling to figure out what to do when a lead came in. They had a process, automations in place, and a step-by-step system to follow from first inquiry through to booking confirmation and beyond.
Booking consistently right out of graduation is not the norm for advisors who try to start a travel agency without structured training. Most of them spend the first several months piecing things together, making avoidable mistakes, and trying to reverse-engineer a foundation while simultaneously trying to serve clients. Lindsay and Kathy skipped that cycle entirely because the foundation came first.
Then something happened that they were not expecting quite so soon: two agents asked to join their agency. For a pair who describe themselves as perfectionists, people who like to have everything planned out before taking the next step, this was a moment that required them to make a decision before they felt fully ready. They made it anyway. All four of them, including the new agents, are learning and building together. That willingness to move forward without perfect conditions is exactly the kind of mindset that accelerates growth when you are trying to start a travel agency and scale it intentionally.
The Bali Moment That Made It Real
One of the most telling parts of their story is what happened when a couple they had booked returned from a two-week trip to Bali. Lindsay and Kathy were watching their automations fire, follow-up emails and text messages going out on schedule, while waiting anxiously for feedback. The silence while clients are traveling can feel nerve-wracking. But as Kathy pointed out: would you be contacting your travel agent if you were having an amazing time? Probably not.
When the message finally came through, it was amazing, we cannot wait to talk, it landed as a validation of everything they had been building. Every module worked through, every automation set up, every system put in place was reflected in that single client response. That moment is what transforms a new travel agency from something that feels like an experiment into something that feels like a real business. It is the proof point that the foundation works.
The Tools That Made the Biggest Difference
When asked about their favorite tools inside Careers on Vacation®, both Lindsay and Kathy pointed to different things, which speaks to how much ground the program actually covers.
The marketing module stood out for its depth and practicality. The video boot camp, which is included as a bonus for Careers on Vacation® students, introduced skills neither of them had ever needed before like video editing, content creation, YouTube. Coming from careers where training was provided and structured for them, learning to find and source information independently was its own kind of shift. The video boot camp made that accessible rather than overwhelming.
The AI course was another standout. Using AI tools daily has become part of how they run the business, and the course inside Wanderlust Campus, including the Wanderbots, which are AI-powered mock client interactions, gave them a safe place to practice before working with real clients. Making a mistake with a simulated version of a difficult client is a very different experience than making that mistake in a real booking conversation. That kind of low-stakes practice builds confidence faster than almost anything else.
But the piece that surprised them most was the mindfulness and mindset component of the program. Coming in focused on the module content, it was easy to scroll past that section, but it turned out to be one of the most valuable parts of the experience. Moving into a new career, a new partnership, and a new business model at the same time requires more than just knowledge. It requires a genuine reset in how you approach uncertainty, how you build confidence, and how you frame what it means to not know something yet. The mindset work inside COV gave them language and tools for navigating that transition in a way that made everything else easier to absorb.
What They Want New Advisors to Know
If you are thinking about how to start a travel agency and you are trying to decide whether a structured program is the right investment, Lindsay and Kathy’s answer is clear and unequivocal: you will be so much further ahead than anyone in your peer group who did not go through it.
That does not mean you graduate with everything figured out. You will not. There will still be questions, still be learning curves, still be moments where you have to figure something out in real time. But the difference between navigating those moments with a foundation under you and navigating them while simultaneously trying to build that foundation is enormous.
What Careers on Vacation® provides, and what Lindsay and Kathy point to most, is not just information. It is structure, sequencing, community, and coaching all working together. The Facebook group, the live sessions, the one-on-one coaching access, the community of people who are genuinely lifting each other up rather than competing, these things matter when you are building something new and the overwhelm is real.
When they see questions in their host agency’s forums from advisors who clearly did not go through a program like this, their instinct is to reach out and say: you might want to consider going back to a foundation first. Even if it feels like a step back in the moment, it will propel you forward faster than continuing to piece things together on your own.
Ready to Start Your Travel Agency the Right Way?
Lindsay and Kathy went from a dinner table conversation to a functioning, growing travel agency with clients, automations, a marketing system, and two agents, all in a matter of months. If their story resonates with you, the first step is a conversation. You can apply for Careers on Vacation® and speak with an enrollment specialist now to find out whether the program is the right fit for where you are and where you want to go.
