Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jen Barnes. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

If I could go back in time, I absolutely wish I had started my business sooner. I started Go Family Adventure during the pandemic when I had time to go through all of our family travel photos. That probably seems totally counter-intuitive. Who starts a travel business during a time when no one can travel? Two things happened during those long days at home together as a family. First, we reminisced about all of the incredible memories we have from our family travels. I realized we had a lot of tips to share from our adventures. We had done some things well and a lot of things wrong. People in our close community were asking us how we did things and why we traveled to certain places. During those pandemic days I had time to organize the beginnings of that content. Second, while the kids were around all the time I got a very close view of how quickly our time together as a family of 5 was coming to a close. We had three teenagers and I had a moment of panic followed closely by a moment of clarity. I needed the next thing for ME sooner than later.
After I started gaining some momentum, the excitement began to build and it hasn’t slowed down. I realized I could have done this earlier, but was limiting myself and my capabilities.

Jen, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a wife to John for 23+ years, and a mom to 3 (ages 20,18,15). Our personal story that led to my business story is that after being stuck in a family cycle, I did the unthinkable and disrupted the cycle. We broke away from the expectations of an extended family beach week and started our own adventures. I realized a lot of other families might be stuck in the same cycle. I also realized dual working household families had the desire and the means to take family trips, but didn’t have the energy or the time to plan them.

My biggest aim as a travel advisor and travel content creator is to help other busy families find a way to travel more together. I believe travel is the great connector. It connects us to the ones we travel with AND it connects us to the places we go.

Not only do I share to inspire, I share to encourage families to make the leap and go. For some clients it’s about giving them the confidence to do something they are unsure about. For other clients it’s about creating an inventive itinerary they just don’t have the time to put into researching or executing. The most important thing in the way I do business is to curate an experience for my client. I don’t push certain properties or certain activities or even certain destinations. I genuinely seek to understand the client and WHY they are traveling in order to create a trip that meets their needs and wants.

For travel content I share a variety of things that appeal to families wanting to travel more. I include destinations, hotels, travel tips, and lesser known adventures. You will find a great love for the outdoors and a strong encouragement to get your family outside more. I have a passion for getting kids off screens and outside.

I am always most proud of my work when someone sends me a message that they enjoyed a destination I have written about or that they tried a restaurant I mentioned. When a family tells me they had “the best trip they’ve ever taken…hands down” I am overwhelmed that I get to be a part of that.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Helping other families travel has long been a part of my life, but the pandemic gave me the space to start sharing more of it. A good friend from college reached out in late 2022 to ask for more full service travel advising. She was a busy, working mom of 4 that had a dream of pulling together a trip to Italy during the summer months, but she was overwhelmed. She asked if I could help. It was that phone call that pushed me over the edge and turned my help into a side hustle, which turned into a full fledged career.

What began as fun, helpful conversations turned into an opportunity to very tangibly create a fully planned international trip for a family of 6. There were some learning curves and some doubts along the way, but over a year later and I’m happily planning a dozen international family trips and other travel experiences for couples and groups. I’m so grateful for that nudge and for the confidence that friend instilled in me.

All of this has also given me such peace about a future of empty nesting. I wasn’t sure what life would look like as my kids began to leave to start their own adventures, but I’m delighted to say that I have a very clear and exciting path forward!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

In my business as a travel advisor, the single best source of new clients is previous clients. Word of mouth referrals continues to be the best free marketing that I never could have imagined. When a client has an amazing experience and they share that with someone else, it’s magical. Those leads are wonderful! The way I turn those leads into actual clients is by getting on a call. I take the time to talk through their “why” of travel and listen to their dreams. I answer the questions they have about budget, safety, destinations, and logistics. From there it is pretty natural to get started.

In my business of content creation, I do a lot of self marketing to tourism boards and other travel brands like hotels and tour companies. My best sources of gaining new clients for that are my business to business quarterly newsletters and my Instagram. I don’t have a lot of followers, but I do have authentic engagement. I also get rejected- A LOT! So there is a “just keep swimming” mindset that I have to lean into.

I would also like to say that I invest in my own personal travels quite a bit. It’s a priority for me to show my clients a variety of destinations, but also to show that I’m doing the thing I’m asking them to spend money on. Potential clients see this. They see that I am investing in my business for THEIR sake.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thegofamilyadventure.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gofamilyadventure/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-barnes-0b49ab217/