If you are a current or retired teacher searching for jobs for former teachers that actually use the skills you have spent years building, the travel industry might be the most natural pivot you have never considered.
Kristi McCullough spent 13 years as an elementary school teacher and another 15 as a literacy consultant, traveling constantly to train teachers across Indiana and beyond, and she was good at it. She loved helping people, but the physical toll of nonstop work travel was catching up with her, and she wanted to travel on her own terms.
One Monday morning in November 2024, she had an epiphany, and by Saturday of that same week, she had enrolled in Careers on Vacation® at Wanderlust Campus. Today she runs Harbor and Holiday Travel Company, sold $47,000 worth of travel in January alone, and is on track to hit $250,000 in sales before the end of June.
From the Classroom to the Travel Industry
Kristi’s background was not in business or sales. It was in education for nearly three decades. But the skills that made her exceptional in the classroom translated directly into building a travel business: the ability to absorb and implement new information, follow a structured learning path, and genuinely care about helping the people she serves.
What she did not want to do was figure it out on her own, and at 52 years old, she was clear about that. She did not have years to spend on trial and error, piecing together advice from random sources and hoping it eventually clicked. She wanted a program that told her exactly what to do, how to do it, and when, the same standard she had held herself to as an educator.
That is what drew her to Careers on Vacation®. She found the free masterclass through YouTube, watched video after video from her hotel room during a work trip, came home, told her husband, had a discovery call with enrollment coach Karen, and enrolled, all within one week.
Selling Before She Even Graduated
Kristi started the program in December 2024 and finished in March 2025. But she did not wait until graduation to start selling. By February, still in the middle of the program, she had already made her first sales. The Alaska trip that enrollment coach Karen had suggested as a kickoff strategy became real: Kristi planned a group trip to Alaska for the following summer, marketed it to her audience, and used it as her first major launch.
For anyone considering jobs for former teachers that offer both flexibility and real earning potential, this timeline matters. She was not spending years building before seeing results; she was producing revenue while still learning, because the program gave her enough foundation to move before everything was perfect.
The Marketing Foundation That Made the Difference
One of Kristi’s biggest wins was not a single booking; it was setting up her marketing the right way from the start.
Despite having personal social media pages and a significant following, she quickly realized that personal social media and business social media are completely different things. Careers on Vacation® walked her through setting up her YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook, and Meta Business Suite in a connected, intentional way, step by step, in a format that made sense.
The result was visibility that compounded over time. Friends and family who saw her consistent posting began to associate her name with travel planning. An Alaskan trip here, a Hawaii trip there, Disney content, and each post kept her at the front of people’s minds. Some engaged immediately, while others watched quietly for weeks or months before reaching out.
As the program teaches, there are always lurkers, people paying attention who have not yet raised their hand. Showing up consistently is how you stay top of mind when they finally do.
That consistency, even when imperfect, is what drove her January sales number to $47,000, a figure she is proud of and one that has her on track for her mid-year goal.
What She Loved Most About the Program
For someone who spent her career in education, Kristi was naturally attuned to how the curriculum was delivered, and she was genuinely impressed. The mix of written materials, recorded videos, mindset content, and live coaching calls gave her multiple ways to absorb the same information. But what she found most valuable were the live booking demos.
Watching coaches actually log into supplier systems in real time, navigating the backend booking platforms, thinking through decisions out loud, and showing exactly where to click and why gave her a practical reference point she could not have gotten from written instructions alone. The booking academy supplemented this by giving her a searchable library to return to when a specific supplier question came up later.
She also valued the lifetime access. Marketing modules updated since her graduation, new skills labs, AI integration, all of it available whenever she logs back in, at no additional cost.
The Community No One Expects
One of the things Kristi mentioned that she genuinely valued was the culture inside Wanderlust Campus, and for someone who has worked in large organizations of women in education for decades, this stood out to her. The Facebook group, the live sessions, the in-person Wander Beyond retreat in Orlando, all of it reflected the same thing: a community where people ask questions without fear of being dismissed, support each other without competition, and show up the same way in person as they do online.
That kind of environment is not accidental. It starts with leadership, and Kristi was direct about that. A community reflects the person who built it.
Is This the Right Move for You?
If you are a former or current teacher looking for jobs for former teachers that offer real flexibility, meaningful work, and income potential that scales with your effort, the travel industry is worth a serious look. The skills you already have are more transferable than you think. What most people are missing is not talent or passion; it’s the structured path that Kristi found and followed, which delivered results in just a few months.
You can apply and speak with an enrollment specialist; schedule your call today. If you are not ready to commit yet, consider our free masterclass; it’s the right first step, the same one Kristi took from a hotel room on a Tuesday night before she changed everything.
