There is a version of figuring out how to start a travel business that involves piecing things together from YouTube videos, Facebook groups, and trial and error. It’s slow, expensive, and sometimes lonely. And then there is the version Tiffany Hansen chose. After nearly a decade in commercial and retail development, she found herself at a crossroads. Her father was retiring, which meant the business she had built her professional life around was changing too. She needed to figure out what came next, and she was not willing to guess her way through it.
What she found was Careers on Vacation® at Wanderlust Campus, a decision she made just weeks before sitting down for this conversation as a brand-new graduate of the program. Her travel business, Love Edit Travel, now exists where nothing existed before. And the biggest thing she took away from the experience was not a booking system or a marketing plan, it was confidence.
Starting From a Real Life Transition
Tiffany’s path into the travel industry did not start with a longtime dream of becoming a travel advisor. It started with a life shift. Ten years in commercial and retail development gave her a strong foundation in project management, client relationships, and operational thinking, but when her father’s retirement brought that chapter to a close, she had to ask herself what she actually wanted the next season to look like.
Travel was the answer, since the passion was already there; what was missing was a clear path to turn that passion into a legitimate business. Tiffany was honest with herself early on: she had no interest in figuring out how to start a travel business entirely on her own. She had seen what DIYing a business looked like without proper guidance, and she wanted an expert hand to hold, someone who had already mapped the road she was about to walk.
She found that through Cyndi Williams on YouTube, which is where a lot of future travel advisors first encounter Wanderlust Campus. Something clicked, and she made the decision to enroll in Careers on Vacation® rather than piece things together herself.
The Biggest Win Was Not What She Expected
When asked about her biggest win since starting the program, Tiffany did not mention a booking milestone or a revenue number. She talked about confidence, and specifically, the confidence to make the kinds of decisions that stop new travel advisors in their tracks.
- Should she charge planning fees?
- Who is her ideal client?
- How does she want to position herself?
- How does she hold herself as a professional when this is all still so new?
These are the questions that trip up a lot of new advisors for months, sometimes years, while they are trying to figure out how to start a travel business without a clear framework to work from. For Tiffany, working through those questions inside the program, with coaching support, mindset curriculum, and a structured path, meant she had real answers before she graduated.
She described the experience using an analogy that is worth sitting with. At her gym, the trainers give her a weight to lift, and she tends to grab a slightly lighter one, her “safe weight”, just in case. The trainer usually smiles, walks over, and takes the safe weight away so she has to do the actual work. That is what Careers on Vacation® felt like for her. It took away the safe weight. It pushed her toward the heavier lift, believing in herself, charging what she is worth, positioning her business with intention, and showed her that she was already capable of it. She just needed someone to take the easier option off the table.
That reframe is one of the most important shifts anyone learning how to start a travel business can make. The instinct to play it safe, to wait until you feel more ready, to start smaller than you know you should, that instinct is understandable, but it slows everything down. The program helped Tiffany move past it.
Feeling Believed In Makes a Measurable Difference
Part of what made that confidence shift possible was the coaching relationship. Tiffany worked with coach Erin throughout the program, and the way she describes that relationship is telling. Erin was encouraging, but not in a vague or hollow way. She pushed, in a good and healthy way, as Tiffany put it, and consistently communicated that the belief was already there, you can do this. That message, delivered repeatedly and with genuine conviction, lands differently than reading it in a book or hearing it in a generic motivational context.
When you are navigating how to start a travel business for the first time, especially from a completely different industry background, there are a lot of moments where imposter syndrome shows up and tells you that you do not belong here yet. Having a coach who looks at your existing skills, your project management experience, your client instincts, and says actually, all of that translates, is genuinely valuable.
Tiffany also had access to open office hours with the broader coaching team, which meant that when a specific question came up outside of her regular coaching sessions, she had somewhere to take it. That kind of on-demand support is one of the things that makes learning how to start a travel business inside a structured program different from trying to find answers across scattered online resources.
More Inside the Program Than She Expected
One of the most consistent things Tiffany mentioned was surprise, specifically, surprise at how much was actually included. She went in with some skepticism about whether the program would deliver enough value for the investment, and came out genuinely impressed by the breadth of what was available.
There was so much, in fact, that she did not have time to get through all of it during the active program period. She was still working another job while going through Careers on Vacation®, which meant attending live sessions was not always possible. But the structure of the program accommodated that. She used the Layover Lounge, a resource inside Wanderlust Campus that made replays and materials accessible on her own schedule, which gave her the flexibility to learn at a pace that worked around her existing commitments.
The skills labs, the Wanderbots for AI-powered practice, the partner portal, the booking academy, all of it is still available post-graduation. Tiffany described having a list of things she is planning to go back and work through now that the active program is complete. The foundation was built during the 12 active weeks, but the learning does not stop when the program ends. Lifetime access means that every new update, every added resource, every curriculum expansion becomes available to graduates automatically. For someone still in the early stages of learning how to start a travel business, that ongoing access is not a nice-to-have. It is part of what makes the foundation sustainable.
The Community is Something Different
Tiffany made a point of highlighting something that often gets overlooked in conversations about travel education: the culture of the community itself.
There are a lot of Facebook groups in the travel industry. Supplier groups, host agency communities, and general advisor forums, and they are not always kind places to ask questions, especially questions that might feel basic or reveal how new you are to something. The experience of feeling like you asked the wrong thing and getting a dismissive or even unkind response is common enough that a lot of new advisors stop asking questions in those spaces at all.
The Wanderlust Campus community is different, and Tiffany noticed it immediately. The graduate Facebook group is described as genuinely safe, a place where a question that might feel silly somewhere else is answered with encouragement rather than judgment. That culture does not happen by accident. It is the result of intentional leadership throughout the program itself. Every time a difficult question came up in a live class, every time a response from an instructor or coach could have gone either way, it went toward warmth and support.
For someone figuring out something completely new in a space that is already filled with noise and competing opinions, having a community that is genuinely safe to learn in changes the experience of the whole process. You are more likely to ask the question when you do not know something. You are more likely to take the risk when you have a supportive place to land if it does not work the first time.
The Path Does Not End at Graduation
One of the things Tiffany is clearest about is that Careers on Vacation® is not just a course that ends with a certificate. It is a foundation, and more than that, it is a path forward. The program does not just teach you how to start a travel business. It shows you where you are going next, what the milestones look like, and how to continue building after graduation.
That ongoing structure matters because the travel industry does not stay still. It changes constantly, and the education and tools inside Wanderlust Campus update to reflect that. Graduates are not handed a static snapshot of how the industry worked when they enrolled. They are connected to a living, evolving resource that continues to serve them as their business grows and the landscape shifts.
Tiffany would make the same choice again without hesitation. For anyone sitting where she was a few months ago, at a crossroads, drawn to travel, wondering whether a structured program is actually worth it, her answer is direct: you will move faster, make fewer mistakes, and build something more solid than you would have on your own. The program gave her a path, milestones, expert guidance, and a community. That combination is what turns the question of how to start a travel business from something overwhelming into something actionable.
Ready to Stop Figuring It Out Alone?
If Tiffany’s story sounds like where you are right now, transitioning careers, drawn to travel, not wanting to DIY your way through the learning curve, the next step is a straightforward one. You can apply for Careers on Vacation® and speak with an enrollment specialist. The conversation is free, and it starts with your goals.
The safe weight is optional. You can lift heavier than you think.
