887 Vanessa McGovern:

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Vanessa McGovern:

Entrepreneurship is one big personal development journey. And one of the things that keeps entrepreneurs stuck, is, you know, perfection paralysis. I see a lot of entrepreneurs in our own community and outside the community just put so much pressure and resistance around a specific outcome. And it’s like that, you know, Buddhist quote, relax. Nothing is in your control. And the faster you can lean into that, the happier and more joyful your entrepreneurial journey is going to be. But if you’re that kind of person that has to control everything at every moment and every outcome and everything has to be exactly a certain way, then you might have to reevaluate.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s right, relax. Easier said than done, right? But Vanessa McGovern is right – the more you’re able to let go of control, perfectionism and attachment to a specific outcome or the way that outcome has to be achieved, the more you’ll achieve. Yes, it’s a bit counter intuitive, and yet what else could explain Vanessa actually growing her travel business at the height of the Covid pandemic? In just a moment she’s going to share how her company, the Gifted Travel Network, not only stayed fully operational during the covid lockdown but supported some 200 independent travel contractors.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward a five-time serial entrepreneur, so this podcast is all about catalyzing an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other …Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur, who together with her two female co-founders, built a fast-growing travel business that empowers small travel vendors, supports independent advisors, and curates authentic and memorable travel experiences.

Melinda Wittstock:

Vanessa McGovern believes travel is healing, that in our disconnected, fast paced world, travel, cultural immersion, and authentic experiences bring us together. As a co-founder and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Gifted Travel Network, Vanessa is also a fierce advocate for travel advisors, an award-winning industry educator, and a sought-after travel thought leader and speaker who has innovated a unique approach to supporting and educating other travel entrepreneurs.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we talk about the magic of travel as a means to heal and unite people, the power of storytelling, and why an “everybody wins” abundance mindset is the secret of success for the Gifted Travel Network. We also talk about resilience, adaptability and optimism is crucial for entrepreneurial success and Vanessa shares how her travel company against all odds triumphed and grew… during Covid. Vanessa will be here in a moment, and first:

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Melinda Wittstock:

Often, the most successful businesses succeed simply because they dare to be contrarian, zig when others zag, spot opportunities others miss, and never allow themselves to get too rigidly attached to any specific desired outcome or “how” something has to be done. And many of the best also come up during challenging times.

Melinda Wittstock:

The Gifted Travel Network and it’s three female co-founders are no different, and today one of them, Vanessa McGovern, explains how the right mindset translates directly to the bottom line. Vanessa is known for her optimistic and adaptable mindset. Embracing challenges with curiosity, Vanessa believes in learning and expanding from every experience. Her glass-half-full attitude has seen her through some of the toughest times, including the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Vanessa successfully kept her company operational and retained all her employees, supporting around 200 independent contractors running their own travel businesses.

Melinda Wittstock:

Get ready to be inspired as we take flight with Vanessa and be sure to download the podcast app Podopolo so we can keep the conversation going after the episode.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Vanessa, welcome to Wings.

Vanessa McGovern:

Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

You founded your business, you know, eleven years ago in the travel industry. It’s been through, I imagine, a lot, like, there was this little thing called Covid.

Vanessa McGovern:

Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

I want to start with your biggest accomplishments along the way. But really, I’m most interested in what the challenges have been because to build something and sustain it for that long and really make it work, it doesn’t come without challenges.

Vanessa McGovern:

Sure. As an entrepreneur, I think that is one of the biggest things you have to be able to do is embrace challenges, and you have to be agile and adapt and learn. And I’m more of a, you know, glass half full kind of person. So even though, of course, we experience challenges, I fundamentally always believe that everything is always working out the way it’s meant to. And I’m always very curious about challenges and how we can learn from them and grow and expand. And so, I think that mindset has definitely served me and my business partners well as we have navigated eleven years of growing and scaling a business. And as you said earlier, and also during the pandemic, which arguably the travel industry was one of, if not the hardest hit industry in the world. And we were able to not only keep the doors open of the company, but we also kept all of our employees that existed to support our, at the time, about 200 independent contractors that also own their own independent operated travel businesses.

Vanessa McGovern:

And we’re the umbrella company for those companies, for those individually operated businesses. And we were able to keep every single one of our employees employed, which was very rare for a travel company.

Melinda Wittstock:

That is actually amazing. I just want to acknowledge that we could talk over that, but that’s, that’s huge.

Vanessa McGovern:

I mean, yeah, it was.

Melinda Wittstock:

I mean, you know, I’m just thinking, because everybody else was just, like, laying people off or, yeah, shutting things down, retrenching how we…

Vanessa McGovern:

We did the opposite. We saw it as. As an important pause, and we acknowledge the obviously magnitude of the situation we were in, and we leaned in, and we focused on supporting our travel advisors that were, you know, having to cancel, like, all of the trips that they had on the books for their own clients, some of which were, you know, they saw their entire businesses basically shatter within, you know, 48 hours. And so, we were just very focused on supporting them and leaning into what that looked like. We actually invested, invested during that time, not just intellectually, but monetarily, we actually ended up hiring an employee during 2020 because we believed, and it’s what happened, that the, you know, the comeback is greater than the setback. And for the first two years out of COVID I mean, we experienced 400% year over year growth from our numbers ending in 2019 to what we experienced in 2022. And I believe that is large, in part due to the abundant sort of positive mindset that we had during the pandemic and holding the space for the great comeback. And we just kept our travel advisors very busy.

Vanessa McGovern:

We were constantly providing them with educational opportunities, like learn Facebook ads and let’s lean into email marketing and keep inspiring people to travel and think about what that’s going to look like when we come out of the lockdown. And we had advisors that started Facebook live series and podcasts and just curating a content to help people keep thinking about what that would look like. Because at some point, we would all stop doing home improvement projects. We would start traveling, and that’s what’s happened. I mean, I think last summer, everybody in the United States went to Italy. It was a very busy time for Italy. This year, Italy still continues to be in high demand, and other European destinations are now experiencing that surge. And so, the comeback has been, you know, it is exactly as we had predicted.

Vanessa McGovern:

And we focused on that during the pandemic, and we leaned in, and we put a lot of resources behind that.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, if you look back historically, a lot of great businesses were built in the depression. Great came out of the dot.com bust. Right? Great businesses came out of, you know, the whole 2008 thing. And so, when things are going sort of against you, you know, what you did was contrary. Like, you had the confidence to just zig when other people were zagging, if you know what I mean.

Vanessa McGovern:

Yes. Yes. And there was a sort of, you know, existential crisis going on in society on. On so many levels, and so many people were getting laid off of their corporate jobs and realizing, you know what, I didn’t really like that job in the first place, and I need to reevaluate. And during these times of downturn, people start really thinking about what entrepreneurship and life by design look like. And we knew that. And so, we set the foundation for creating opportunities for entrepreneurial, spirited professionals to transition into a career in travel and to start their own travel businesses, because we knew this was a good time for them to lay that foundation, to be ready for the great comeback. And we had a lot of people invest in our new to industry training program during 2020 and 2021.

Vanessa McGovern:

And they built a solid foundation during that time when things were sort of obviously slower than normal. And we have a lot of truly amazing success stories that started from people who, like, literally started their business, their travel businesses in the middle of a lockdown. And I find that to be just so inspiring.

Melinda Wittstock:

It goes back to something that you were saying right at the very beginning, Vanessa. You know, where you said, look, as an entrepreneur, you know, there’s really a lot of things you can’t control. And whatever’s happening is happening for a reason. I think where we get into trouble as entrepreneurs, at least emotionally or mentally or get stressed out, is we all have the perfect plan and then we sort of judge ourselves against and that we invented and, you know, like, we make it harder than it is.

Vanessa McGovern:

So true. And, you know, one of the big things I’ve learned about in my entrepreneurial journey is, like, entrepreneurship is one big personal development journey. And one of the things that keeps entrepreneurs stuck, and you just said it right there, is, you know, perfection paralysis. And when you put a lot of resistance, and I see a lot of entrepreneurs in our own community and outside the community just put so much pressure and resistance around a specific outcome. And it’s like that, you know, Buddhist quote, relax. Nothing is in your control. And the faster you can lean into that, the happier and more joyful your entrepreneurial journey is going to be. But if you’re that kind of person that has to control everything at every moment and every outcome and everything has to be exactly a certain way, then you might have to reevaluate.

Vanessa McGovern:

Do you have an employee mindset, or do you have an entrepreneurial mindset? Because entrepreneurship demands being open and agile and just embracing the journey and all of the things that come at you from every single direction, every single day. And of course, you need structure and of course you need a plan, but you also need to not be so married to it. Does that make sense?

Melinda Wittstock:

It does. I mean, when you started your business, you’re the co-founder. So, you know, when, when you got together with your other founders to do this, I mean, did you have this mindset from the outset, or was it something that you kind of learned, you know, along the way?

Vanessa McGovern:

I think there’s an element of we had that mindset from the beginning. I’m very blessed with the two women that we started the company that I started the company with, we sort of subscribe to that mindset in general and obviously we have a lot of synergies in how we sort of view entrepreneurship in the world. I don’t think our business would have scaled the way that it did if we didn’t share those principles and values. But I definitely feel like that has all been amplified over the last eleven years and it’s just been further deepened or reaffirmed those lessons. I mean, there’s certainly, I’ve been given challenges and opportunities to really lean into those lessons and to take that journey myself because it’s one thing to sort of spew it out and to say it, but it’s another to actually be in the thick of it and have to lead by example. And I’ve been certainly given that opportunity many times over the last eleven years.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, I mean, with every challenge and, you know, obviously we talked about COVID and that was a really big one and how you really chose to invest in the business, but actually really invest in empowering other people.

Vanessa McGovern:

Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so, was that always the mission? Like when you go back to the why of why you began your business, you know, why travel? We can get to that in a moment. But when you were thinking like, okay, why am I an entrepreneur? Why am I doing this on your personal why was it always really to empower other people or what was the big impetus?

Vanessa McGovern:

Yes, I mean, definitely we had the desire to support small businesses and to support travel business owners. And our company, Gifted Travel Network, is an umbrella company, a management company, if you will, for the sellers of travel. And so, our entire business model exists to support the individually operated sellers of travel and their businesses. So, we don’t sell travel at gifted travel network. That’s not what we do. If you say to me, Vanessa, you know what, actually, I do want to go to Italy this summer. I would say, great. I would say, how about Slovenia or maybe a lesser-known destination that is like Italy.

Vanessa McGovern:

Don’t go in the summer because the crowds are pretty intense. Go on the off season. That’s what I would say to you. Don’t go in August.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. UK is there in August and Germany and everybody.

Vanessa McGovern:

Yeah, it’s, yeah, slow season. Off season travel is definitely where it’s at for those popular destinations. And then I would say, and let me connect you with one of our travel advisors in our gifted travel network community that specialize in Italy, and then you would work with one of them. And so, the entire business model has always existed to support and serve entrepreneurs. And it just happens that our, our vehicle in which we are showing up and how we are of service to the world truly is through travel, and which is another sort of passion that drives us, because, I mean, I personally believe that, you know, borders divide and travel unites, and that there is so much to garner from travel, and travel can heal, and travel sets marriages, marriages up for success. You know, with honeymoons, travel saves marriages. Travel brings families together and creates moments of connection. Where we live in such a disconnected, fast paced world, I mean, travel is healing.

Vanessa McGovern:

And we have always believed that. I have personally always believed that. I’ve always known I wanted, I’ve always, I’ve only ever worked in travel, honestly. That’s been my, the industry, and it’s the industry I love, and I believe in it wholeheartedly and passionately. And then to serve others through the business that we have in their journey, to be of service to others through their trip experiences is our entire business model.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, you raise a really important point because we live in such a divided society right now. Social media was supposed to bring us together. It’s done quite the opposite. And it’s also, it’s just disconnected people. People think they’re sort of connecting, but they’re not connecting. And, and then there’s all this compare, comparison itis and just all this stuff. Oh, my goodness. We could go on about that for a long time.

Melinda Wittstock:

Travel, though, is you’re actually out in the world doing real things, seeing different perspectives. Just, you’re learning, I mean, and like, actually connecting and seeing beyond their own limitations in a way. Right. Because everybody seems like they’re in their own little silos.

Vanessa McGovern:

It’s so true and very well said. I’ve just come back from a trip to Spain, and I was there for nine days hosting our top producer’s trip. So, it was our top agencies of 2023. This was their rewards trip. One of our partners that we work with, our preferred partner for Spain that our travel advisors work with, and they’re a destination management company, obviously, based in Madrid in Spain, and their company is made for Spain and Portugal. These are the types of businesses that exist to curate trips for travel advisors’ clients. So, you, as a direct consumer, you don’t book directly with the DMC? The DMC works. It only exists, you know, in this case, for the travel advisor.

Vanessa McGovern:

And that’s relevant in just a moment here and why I’m sort of taking you on this journey. And so last week, when we were in Spain, of course, they put together a traditional itinerary, one would assume, we did Madrid. We did Seville and Marbella. And of course, when you’re in Madrid, you go to the Prado and when you’re in Seville, you go to the palace and Alcazar. And so, there’s obviously things that you do. But when we were in Seville, and this highlights the value of a travel advisor and working with the right destination management company. But more importantly to this conversation highlights what we were, what you just said. When we were in Seville, our partner in Spain set up an opportunity for us that touched our soul so incredibly, deeply.

Vanessa McGovern:

And that was we visited the home of a woman by the name of Adela Brits, and she is the granddaughter of angel Brits, who is known as the angel of Budapest. He was the Spanish diplomat to Hungary during World War two and he saved the lives of 5,200 Hungarian jews from deportation to Auschwitz. And his story is not known because Hollywood didn’t make a movie out of that. And yet people have now come to know this story. And over the years, Adela and her family have started receiving visitors and letters from people all over the world, thanking the grandfather and thanking the family for saving them and saving their family and wanting to go and like literally meet Adela and the family to thank them in person. And she showed us these, what they call love letters, which is bound books of the letters and the emails that they’ve been receiving over the years. And we went to her home. She served us beautiful regional wine; we had Sherry with regional de Seville.

Vanessa McGovern:

And we met her daughter. We pet her dog, we sat in her living room, and we just broke bread together and talked about this really important story that is just so relevant to today’s landscape, to what you said. And that’s the type of meaningful, soul stirring travel experiences that create authentic connections for ourselves in our lives. That’s what we need. And that’s what I mean about travel healing. It’s not just going to the cathedral and going to the local hotspot. It’s about connecting authentically with a destination. And our travel advisors feel deeply passionate about that.

Vanessa McGovern:

And we work with partners that have those types of connections that you can’t go on Google or go anywhere to even find that experience. You wouldn’t even know that exists unless you worked with a travel advisor, right?

Melinda Wittstock:

Just that kind of magical through the, through those connections and really talking experiences, not just in Paris to go to the Louvre or, you know, do all the things like you’re going to do all those things because you tick the box or whatever, you know.

Vanessa McGovern:

Right. See the Mona Lisa but you can…

Melinda Wittstock:

Go deeper but, but to go deeper and actually really experience the culture and the stories, I mean I think what you’re talking about here too is just the storytelling of place and that’s what really, really connects people. So, tell me a little bit about how your business works. It is a network and so it’s a network of and how many, how many independent small businesses do you support or a part of your network and how does it all work?

Vanessa McGovern:

Right, great question. So currently we have approximately 322 independent contractors or travel advisors that are selling travel under the industry credential in our industry called an IATA number. And so gifted travel network holds that industry credential and then we have our 322 advisors that are booking travel through that one credential and so everybody’s sales flows through that one number and that’s important because then we can measure everybody’s aggregate sales together. So, it’s not just about the one individual businesses sale, it’s about everybody’s sales together and then we can take the aggregate sales and work with partners like this destination management company that I just spoke of in Spain. Also, larger companies like large cruise lines for example for example, or large tour operators and we can negotiate on behalf of our travel advisors just better opportunities for their businesses. So that could come in the case of higher commission levels. So, if you work with a cruise line for example and you’re not affiliated with a company like gifted travel network, your entry level commission for selling that Royal Caribbean cruise for example for that multi gen trip this summer to Alaska could be 10%. But if you’re working with gifted travel network because your sales are measured on the aggregate sales of the entire network and not just your own individual sales, now you’re making 15% commission versus ten.

Vanessa McGovern:

So that’s one of the ways that you, that the advisor benefits from working with a larger company like gifted travel network also this means additional amenities. So if your work, if you go and book a Royal Caribbean cruise as an example just sticking with that same process and you’re booking it through, you know you’re booking it through a gift to travel network advisor because of their aggregate sales volume as a network how this benefits the consumer is that we’re able to negotiate things for the client, for the advisor’s clients things like onboard credit, specialty dining. In the case of hotel bookings, you would be guaranteed early check in, late checkout, you know credits in the restaurants, maybe a spa treatment, just extra things to better enhance the client experience that you couldn’t just get if you booked direct because a cruise line would. Partners, they will reserve. They have special programs just for travel advisors, and they make it because it’s an important distribution channel for their business models for hotels and cruise lines. And so, they will give travel advisors access to amenities like onboard credits and special opportunities just for a travel advisor’s clients, because they’re using a travel advisor. So, we are able to then help them elevate their businesses through the aggregate sales. Does that make sense?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, yeah. No, no, it does. That’s really interesting. Well, I mean, the power of a network, you know, when you get right, right where everybody’s getting something out of it. So, you know, all these folks are getting, you mentioned before, just even in the context of COVID all the learning and whatnot, but also the opportunity. And so then how does the business model work? Do they pay you or how, how does all that work? How do you make money?

Vanessa McGovern:

The business model works in a few ways. The main way is our travel advisors are paying a membership fee to gift to travel network. They’re paying their annual fee, and that helps cover licensing and seller of traveler licenses and technology that they need to be able to run their business. Access to CRM and back-office accounting, commission payout, there’s all kinds of things. And it also covers. So, they pay an annual fee, which also includes education, access, conference, things like that. And then there’s a monthly fee that they pay in term, and then that is dependent, though on their commission split. So, commission split means that.

Vanessa McGovern:

So, say they book the Royal Caribbean Cruise. Again, sticking with the same example, when the trip actually goes, Royal Caribbean obviously is going to pay that commission to the travel advisor. The commission actually comes to us. At gifted travel network, we process the commission and then we pay it to the travel advisor. And we pay commissions out twice a month depending on what their commission split is. So, some of our travel advisors are on a 70 30 split. 80 2090 ten, or we scale up to 100%. What that means is when the commission comes in to us, if say they’re on a 70 30 commission split, then we would keep 30% of that commission.

Vanessa McGovern:

And then of course we pay out the 70% to the travel advisor. And there are, there are fees associated with those commission split. It goes up depending on the commission split. It’s more expensive the higher you go. And also, we also have sales thresholds associated, so like you can’t even activate the 90 ten commission split without getting to a certain sales threshold. As well. So that plays a role too. So, we have commission split fees, we have the annual fee, and then we also have events that we host that.

Vanessa McGovern:

That is also, there’s fees associated with that, educational events. Like we fully chartered a river cruise ship in Europe last March. This is what we call our symposium event. And then we also have our annual conference. We’re hosting it this year in Charlotte. Last year it was in Greece. And so, another way our business model works is our preferred partners. So, the cruise lines, the destination management companies, the tour operators, they also pay gifted travel network to be part of what I describe as our ecosystem because we’re all mutually benefiting from the relationship and we’re all working together to grow our mutual businesses.

Vanessa McGovern:

And so, the travel, the travel advisor is paying a membership fee, if you will, or their annual fee, and the preferred partner is too. So made for Spain and Portugal. They’re also invested in gifted travel network, and they do this because they know that working with a gifted travel network advisor means they are able to work with highly qualified travel advisors that are committed and serious about their business. This is. They are not hobbyists. This is not a side hustle. This is their livelihood. And they love that because they know that when they’re working with a gifted travel network advisor, that they know what they’re doing.

Vanessa McGovern:

So that when they have a client that wants to come to Spain, that the GTN advisor is well informed, they’re educated, they fully qualified their client, the business will likely close. So, the travel partners work with us because they know the caliber of advisor that they will be able to work with. There are a lot of different business models in our industry and there are a lot of host agencies like gifted travel network out there that they’re very low barrier to entry and it’s a side hustle. And, you know, that is not a business model that we support. Our pricing certainly doesn’t lend itself. If you want to do this as a side hustle, then you definitely don’t want to be with us because we are way more expensive than those options. But it’s because our advisors are serious about their livelihood. Like, this is their business.

Vanessa McGovern:

And so that’s another point of differentiation from us, from other competitors, if you will, friendly competitors in our space. So anyway, so that’s how we make money because that’s our business model. So, we’ve got the preferred partner investment and then we’ve got the commission retention and the fees from the advisors.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. That’s so interesting. So how do you pick the partners that you work with also.

Vanessa McGovern:

Very good question. We do have a rigorous vetting process. We also belong to a larger conglomerate in the industry that gifted travel network is a member of, just like our advisors are a member of Gifted travel Network. Gifted travel network is a member of Virtuoso, and this is the leader in luxury travel. And we lean on our virtuoso partners quite heavily because they have a very extensive vetting process, like we met made for Spain and Portugal as an example, as a result of our virtuoso relationship. There’s that layer of vetting that we have virtuoso do on our behalf, and that’s part of being a member. And then we also do our own internal vetting process as well. So, we have our partners go through an application process that they’re considering joining, and we do vet them for, you know, we need to know who they’re insured by, you know, for financial default type questions, but we also get referrals from other, other people that have used them.

Vanessa McGovern:

We also have, you know, rigorous questions in regards to how they take payments and also we, you know, other things in terms of the depths of their connections and the types of hotels that they work with as well and the types of experiences that they have. We do an interview process with the partners, too, so that, you know, our advisors are counting on us to ensure that we’re work, that the partners that we are putting our name behind and that we are saying are part of our preferred partner portfolio, you know, have. They’re solid, right. And that they can have the confidence in using them. Now, like I say to our advisors, no partner is immune to a hiccup no matter how preferred they are, no matter how many years they’ve been in business. Like, we’re all human. The last time I checked, it’s all humans that are powering these businesses. And so, there’s obviously going to be.

Vanessa McGovern:

There could be room for error, that somebody could make a misstep or a mistake. It’s not that the partner is going to be perfect because they’re preferred, but what it means is that if something was to happen or something was to go south or be unexpected or unfortunate, if they are a preferred partner with gifted travel network or virtuoso, the advisor has our commitment that as a host agency, we are going to stick with the. Stick with whatever the issue is, and we are going to ensure that it is solved to the best of its ability. And we spend a lot of time in that space, especially right now during peak travel season. I mean partners. So, here’s a, here’s a good practical example of what a preferred partner did for one of our travel advisors’ clients and how they had to work, you know, behind the scenes to get it done. And not that they wouldn’t have done it anyways, but they did it even more so because it was a GTN advisor and because of our preferred partner relationship. We had an advisor who had clients that were en route to Europe.

Vanessa McGovern:

They were heading to Paris, and they were on their flight, on their way, and the travel advisor was asleep and with the time difference. And in the meantime, a water main broke in a hotel, in a hotel and flooded one of the floors. And so, the hotel, you know, had to close. And so, of course, when the client landed in Paris, they didn’t know that, the travel advisor didn’t know that, but the on the ground destination management company got wind of that, obviously, and immediately rearranged the entire hotel. Now Paris was at the time, very sold out and wasn’t a lot of availability, but because the DMC had the connections that they had, they were able to place them in a comparable hotel. The driver met the clients at the airport, explained what was going on, and brought them over to the new hotel without interruption. If the travel advisor hadn’t been using that DMC or had used like an online booking engine to like, source that or even the hotel direct, in a lot of cases, the hotel themselves were scrambling to try to figure out how to move the guests and where they were going to put them. But the DMC, the destination management company, fixed everything seamlessly without any issue or any interruption to the client’s experience, and that these things can happen.

Vanessa McGovern:

But when you’re working with vetted partners that have a vetted interest in ensuring everything happens seamlessly, you’re in good hands. So that’s just one of many stories I could share.

Melinda Wittstock:

This is fascinating. What an interesting business.

[PROMO CREDIT]

Wings of Inspired Business is brought to you by the new podcast, Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets. Join me together with Steve Little – serial entrepreneur, investor and mergers & acquisitions maestro – as we explore the little-known 24 value drivers that spell the difference between a $5m business, and a $50mm even $500 mm business. That’s Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets, produced by Podopolo Brand Studio at zerolimitsradio.com – that’s zerolimitsradio.com and available wherever you get your podcasts.

Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Vanessa McGovern, co-founder of the Gifted Travel Network.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Vanessa McGovern:

You know what, there’s never a dull moment. I never know what awaits me in my inbox every day.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so, the type of travel that you do, is this mostly on the luxury side of things or where do you sit in terms of your market positioning?

Vanessa McGovern:

Yes, mainly on the luxury. Our travel advisors are primarily focused on upper premium, upper premium and luxury. A lot of our advisors do skew Luxe and ultra luxe. We had, you know, on advisor that just booked for, you know, we have some Four Seasons yacht bookings that are six figure bookings that are not even until 2026 or around the world, you know, jet trips. But we do have advisors that will do the fun and fun. And, son, we have advisors that can service that four-star, sort of all-inclusive properties in the Caribbean. We’ve got great relationships in that space. But if, you know, somebody is looking for, you know, a domestic weekend getaway, depending on the hotel, though, it might not be something that our travel advisors will serve.

Vanessa McGovern:

But we also travel advisors that are on a retainer model with their clients. So, the client pays the travel advisor, say, like, a $15 to $20,000 retainer fee for the year, and then that way, all the service fees are covered, and the travel advisor is booking all the trips. So even just like, a weekend trip to Charleston, as well as their, you know, $50,000 African safari. It just depends on the travel advisor’s business model.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, you and two other women founded this company?

Vanessa McGovern:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, Vanessa, I started this podcast because I really wanted to affirm and acclaim the entrepreneurial journeys of women. And when I first began, I thought, how will I find enough women that have built seven, eight, nine figure businesses? So, it’s almost 900 episodes in here now.

Vanessa McGovern:

Wow.

Melinda Wittstock:

One of the things I’ve noticed is that women, even though we get, and I’m a tech entrepreneur, so even though we get, like, less funding or there’s just all kinds of other structural issues. Right. You know, that are more challenging in many cases for women in business. Women tend to do better than men, more. Like, a higher proportion of female founded companies actually survive or like, and they do better, have more efficient use of capital. Like, I don’t know, we just do better and often with less. And so, in the travel industry, being, like, a women run business going eleven years, does it make a difference? I mean, the fact that you’re, you know, women led three female founders, what kind of difference, in your mind, has that made relative to other competitors in your, in your market?

Vanessa McGovern:

I love this question. I love this conversation, other than travel, which is clearly my passion, and really what lights me up, the other thing that lights me up is conversations around how to empower females and female leadership. And I’m particularly interested in conversations right now in our industry that help advance females in our industry and show them career trajectories. And to put more women at the C suite, like travel advisors, are predominantly women. But when you look at the C suite of our cruise lines and our tour companies’ destination boards or like the World Travel and Tourism Summit that I a member of and attended their conference last year, I mean, it’s men. And in fact, I don’t know if you saw, there was a study published, and I can’t remember who powered it at this exact moment, but I was reading it on LinkedIn a couple weeks ago, and it’s a study that basically says that women have lost, for the first time in two decades, our momentum in the C suite. And so, I feel very passionate about ensuring that women in our industry and females will see a trajectory for themselves and can see themselves in leadership positions as well. And I take an active role in this conversation all the time and even working with our hotel partners on, you know, how to cater to the solo female executive traveler.

Vanessa McGovern:

I was just having this conversation with one of our hotel partners the other day, and I know this isn’t what you asked me, but indulge me for just a moment and then I’m going to come back to answer your question because I have a specific answer, which is, think about that last time that you were at a hotel, like a five star, four star hotel. What are the things in the room that are to female travelers? Not much. I said, where’s my dry shampoo? Where’s my silk pillow? Where’s my. I would love for my subscription from Rent the Runway to just be waiting for me in my room. I’m like, it’s an old boys club still. And so we need to create more conversations around that. And so as a female led, female run company for the last eleven years, like, how is that different? It is hugely different. You know, when I first, before I started this company with Meredith and Jen, the seed was planted long before I worked for another travel company, similar business model, and it was female owned and female led.

Vanessa McGovern:

And when I was pregnant with my son, who is now 13, I, you know, the boss that I had at the time, who was a female, posted my job when I told her I was pregnant and I had just helped the company win an award and for their education, and she didn’t ultimately believe that I was going to stay because I was going to have a child. And she flat out asked me, like, how are you going to do your job when you have a baby? And I was, that moment was one of those, like, pivotal career moments. And I vowed to either work for a company or start a company that would create the space for women to pursue their career ambitions and show up as a great parent and they could do it on their own terms. And I think as we’ve built this company over the last eleven years, we’ve always put our employees first. I mean, we have the 300, you know, plus travel advisors, but we also employ currently 30 employees. We just, in the last year hired our first male. It was not because we didn’t want to. It just happens how people interviewed and what ended up happening.

Vanessa McGovern:

And he’s such a delight and such an amazing contribution. He’s young and he’s such a great team member and he does so well in an all-female dominated workplace. But we are, you know, very focused on ensuring that our employees are creating a work life balance that if they’ve got it, if they’ve got a child that is in competitive cheer dance, soccer, whatever, they need to leave at 02:00 in the afternoon. Go do it, work from there. They need to work from home because their kid is. We never ever, we, in fact, we encourage it and we’re always having these conversations. So, I think that’s how we’re, how we are different, and also how we need to inspire other companies to be different also. And we need to normalize this.

Vanessa McGovern:

You know, we’re at the, at the time, I don’t, at the time that this podcast will drop, I’ll say at the time of the recording, my kids just finished school. Summer is stressful for working, traveling parents like myself, and companies are not set up to support, support camp schedules. And so, we need to have more conversations around that and allow our team members more flexibility in that space. So that’s, you know, I could talk about this for like a whole other podcast because I’m obviously very passionate about this subject. Hopefully that’s the answer that you were looking for.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, no, 100%. Well, I mean, I’d imagine that would get you a lot more market share. I mean, you think of who in the household is booking the travel, is figuring out, you know, when and everybody’s schedule and all that stuff. I mean, chances are, I mean, is it, is it mostly women who are, who are arranging and booking the travel in a household?

Vanessa McGovern:

For the most part, you know, women drive the vacation dollar purse strings for sure.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. And so, to have all those details taken care of, I imagine that’s like a competitive advantage.

Vanessa McGovern:

Yes. Yes, it is for that. And then also just to attract, we’re attracting female talent into the industry to help even just service those bookings, too, is a competitive advantage. And we’ve had a lot of travel advisors come to us and decide to host with us over another company because of the fact that we’re female owned and female led. And that wasn’t part of our marketing or core messaging when we first started. But over the years, we just kept hearing that from people who came to host with us and how much that was a huge factor in choosing us over another agency, and we’ve really sort of started to lean into that now.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, tell me where you’re going in the business now. Like, everything from, like, what are the biggest travel trends that you see? Where do you see the industry changing? How is AI impacting you whole bunch of things.

Vanessa McGovern:

Well, as an industry, we have been woefully behind with technology. We did not get on that bandwagon when we should have, you know, so we’ve just been very slow adopters of tech generally, on, on balance. And so, where our industry is going right now is we have a lot of really exciting companies that have sort of entered the scene to help with solving a lot of our pain points in the industry with the commission processing payment challenges, CRM challenges, you know, just invoicing, processing payments. Like, there’s a lot of manual steps to even just itinerary building and just data entry. And so, the industry is heading right now into more tech that we’re embracing technology and very quickly, and we should have done that a long time ago. I feel like it’s just kind of hitting us all at once. So that’s kind of where we’re going. And travel advisors, as well as the industry as a whole, are definitely starting to embrace AI in terms of how to help them be more efficient business owners.

Vanessa McGovern:

And I think that with AI in terms of travel planning specifically, you know, everybody thought that travel advisors went away with the Internet. Well, they didn’t. They just, what happened is that it disrupted the business model from the stance of before the Internet, there were a lot more in the US specifically, there were a lot more brick and mortar travel agencies. So, if you may recall, like, you know, two decades ago, you would go to your local mall, you would see a travel advisor there, you would, you know, take the brochure off the rack, sit down, book your trip. You know, that’s kind of how things were done pre-Internet. But the Internet didn’t make travel advisors, like, go away. They just lost their visibility on Main Street USA. But they went home based primarily and they still, they reinvented themselves.

Vanessa McGovern:

And now with AI, it’s a similar thing. People like, oh, well, maybe travel advisors’ jobs are going to be irrelevant because of tech, but it’s actually, actually making travel advisors more relevant than ever because there’s always a human element to it. I think that AI is amplifying efficiencies and helping us work smarter, but there’s always going to be a human element to understanding the client’s needs, what makes them tick, and being able to match them with the right experiences. Because there are so many things to consider and choose from in your trip experience. So many hotels, so many restaurants, so many experiences. You need somebody with an expertise, with a ‘boots on the ground’ connections to help you decipher all the options. And there’s always going to be a need for the human side of it. So, I think technology is where we’re headed, but it’s only going to help us do our jobs better.

Melinda Wittstock:

A hundred percent. Oh my goodness. So where do you think you’re going to be, you know, ten years from now? What would be your dream in terms of business growth or what you’ve accomplished?

Vanessa McGovern:

So, where I think GTN will gift to travel network will continue on our, on our great growth trajectory, I think where I’d like to be with gifted travel network is I would love to see more campaigning, if you will, more visibility, more marketing for our profession. I think people still don’t really understand the degree of the magnitude of what it means to be a travel advisor and that this is a viable profession. Where I see us headed is educating hospitality schools, for example, on career trajectories. As a travel advisor, I see gifted travel network starting to work with educational institutions on, you know, entrepreneurial hospitality programs. Because right now a lot of the hospitality programs around the United States are catered more to, to working in a hotel, which of course is a path, but it is not the only path. And there’s a lot more opportunity outside of just working in hotels, like running a travel business. And there is a huge appetite for entrepreneurship. Travel bloggers, for example, travel bloggers.

Vanessa McGovern:

I think that bubble is going to burst because there’s just a lot of very unpaid travel bloggers out there. They’re really great with social media, but they’re not able to monetize it. Well, how you monetize it is if a hotel is going to send you somewhere to make a review or take a picture and post to something, like, how about you send somebody to that hotel and make a booking, you know, that’s how you monetize the blogger aspect of it. So, I see that, I see gifted travel network providing more education, more consumer awareness for travel advisors in terms of our profession and it being a viable career option and entrepreneurial opportunity. And I also see gifted travel network making more of a global impact in terms of female leadership in the industry as well and helping to influence more C suite positions and just working more closely with the World Travel and tourism organization. You know, I spoke very loosely just a little while ago about, you know, why don’t you travel to Italy in the off season? But I do see, you know, world travel and tourism. They do work with destination management companies to increase awareness to travel during off peak times. So, I see gifted travel network working more closely with global organizations to educate the consumer on maybe altering travel patterns and providing more education to the destinations on what that means.

Vanessa McGovern:

Because a lot of, you know, these places are closed in the fall or in the spring or in the winter, but I see them opening more in off seasons and us traveling more, not during summer peak season. So GTN is we’re working with these types of organizations to have these conversations, to have a seat at that table and not just, you know, we want to expand our, our reach, you know, and our global impact and not just for small business owners, but we also want to work with more organizations on that scale as well.

Melinda Wittstock:

Fantastic. So, what’s the best way for people to find you and work with you? Vanessa, whether they have a travel business and they, or they want to have a travel business and they want to find out more about gifted travel network or whether they’re a consumer and they’re looking to book their dream vacation.

Vanessa McGovern:

Yes, great question. So, the great place to start is to go to our website, giftedtravelnetwork.com. If you are a consumer and you’re just ready to go to Spain after hearing my description or you want to go to Italy in the off season or you want to take a cruise, we just launched a directory on our website where many of our travel advisors are listed and featured and their specialties are listed there. So, you can certainly go to our website and find one of our many travel advisors and you can reach out to them, say that you heard me on a podcast and start your travel planning journey there. If you’re truly interested in entrepreneurship in the travel industry and what this might look like, you can also click the link on our website to schedule an appointment and you can talk to somebody on our team that will have either an exploratory or, you know, in depth conversation. You choose as to what that might look like so you can schedule a time. You can also find us on all social media channels. I would love to connect with any of your listeners personally on LinkedIn.

Vanessa McGovern:

That is my preferred social media platform, so you can just find me very easily there. Vanessa McGovern, request to connect. Say you heard me on this podcast, and I’d love to hear from you.

Melinda Wittstock:

Wonderful. Well, Vanessa, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Vanessa McGovern:

Thank you. It was a pleasure.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Vanessa McGovern is a co-founder of the Gifted Travel Network. Download Podopolo, follow Wings of Inspired Business there, create and share your favorite moments with our viral episode clip feature, and join us in the episode comments section so we can all take the conversation further with your questions and comments.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s it for today’s episode. Head on over to WingsPodcast.com – and subscribe to the show. When you subscribe, you’ll instantly get my special gift, the WINGS Success Formula. Women … Innovating … Networking … Growing …Scaling … IS the WINGS of Inspired Business Formula …for daily success in your business and life. Miss a Wings episode? We’ve got hundreds in the vault, all with actionable advice and epiphanies. Check them out at MelindaWittstock.com or wingspodcast.com. You can also catch me on LinkedIn or Instagram @MelindaAnneWittstock. We also love it when you share your feedback with a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever else you listen, including Podopolo where you can interact with me and share your favorite clips.