We recently connected with Kara Brown and have shared our conversation below.

Kara, appreciate you joining us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

Oh man, I totally wish I would’ve started much earlier! I’d always thought it would be so cool to be a travel agent, but in college and right out of college I figured they were a dying breed since you didn’t see too many storefront agencies anymore. It wasn’t until I’d gotten married and had a kid that I actually looked further into this career field and realized that travel agents (or advisors, as I prefer thinking of them) haven’t died out – they’ve just started doing more remote work! A brick and mortar store has a lot of costs, but working out of your home can really reduce your overhead. In a digital age where people are comfortable meeting electronically, there’s really no overwhelming need to have a storefront anymore – unless you want to. Had I started earlier, I would have been much further along with my goals, and I wouldn’t have had to slow my growth those first few years when I had a baby (and then a few years later had another one). My major growth could’ve been prior to becoming a mom, and it would’ve allowed me to stay home with my babies when they were tiny.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Kara and I own Experience Culture Travel, a travel agency specializing in culturally immersive and off the beaten track travel I like connecting my clients with the unique culture of their destination of choice and helping them find ways to engage with the locals. To me, travel is all about expanding your worldview and seeing that what you are used to (whether that is food, where you live, what type of dwelling you have, what you do for a living, or even what you do for fun) is not the only way to happiness in life, and seeing that people in all different cultures and settings find joy in their lives.

I am proud to be able to assist my clients in not only creating their perfect vacations, but also in showing them things they might not have even known about. Finding those special additions or activities that make their trip that much fuller, that’s what brings me joy in each trip I plan. Because I plan international trips for places all over the world, the key to being able to provide such unique experiences is in having local connections in each destination I sell. Most of my time when I’m traveling, I am meeting new tour operators or suppliers or renewing connections I’ve already cultivated so that I can confidently go to my clients with these amazing opportunities. These relationships are really what sets me apart from just doing Google searches or with travel advisors who are more focused on beach and sun vacations.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I used to think that every customer was one I should pursue – particularly at the start of my business when I didn’t have a very big client base. I’ve since come to realize that for me and my business, that just isn’t true. There are many reasons that a customer may not be an ideal client for me, and that’s ok. It doesn’t mean they aren’t an ideal client for anyone else, and I have had to learn that sometimes referring them to a travel agent colleague is a better idea than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, so to speak.

For me, this tends to come out when I have customers looking for domestic trips or who aren’t looking for the type of trips that I really shine through in planning. If I have someone come to me looking to explore the US National Parks, that’s just not an area that I have expertise or relationships with suppliers for, and so typically I’d refer it to another colleague of mine who has done that type of trip herself many times and loves helping clients with that.

Knowing that not every customer is my ideal client has also freed up my time to ensure that when I am working on new trip quotes, I’m devoting my time and energy into something that brings me joy and fills my cup, which is a huge benefit to owning your own business. You get to do (for the most part) things that are uplifting to you instead of the monotony of tasks that sometimes comes when you work for someone else.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started out being a travel agent on the side, with a full time corporate job and a baby. Let me tell you, when I say it was a side hustle, I mean it! There just wasn’t all that much time to devote to anything else! But I realized that so I was focused more on word-of-mouth referrals and building up my website and social media accounts for legitimacy at first. Then when I had a few more clients under my belt, and my now 2 kids were old enough to not need me every hour of the day, I started working on my marketing on social media, and networking with my peers who were maybe 3-5 years further down the path than I was. That really helped me focus on what mattered (getting good reviews, asking for referrals, tweaking my ideal customer profile) and ignore the noise that may matter more for other businesses (paid advertising, etc.). When I realized I had made as much in my travel agency as my corporate (now part-time) job, it was time to make the switch to full time. I am privileged in that my spouse has a corporate job where we can get our health insurance from, that would’ve been the other major factor that would have delayed my transition otherwise.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.experienceculturetravel.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/experienceculture
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/experienceculture

Image Credits
Kara Brown