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

Alright, Kristen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

It’s not easy to find a business name you like that also has URLs and social handles available. We knew we wanted it to be two words, one word about travel, and one word about the type of travel/quality of service. We wanted to keep it short and sweet. We tried hundreds of combinations of words about travel searching for that perfect combination, that was also available for our website URL. After days of striking out, we sat down and said “today we will decide”. We spent many more hours pulling our hair out, and then decided we needed a break. We went to the local Lululemon looking for a specific pair of shorts, and as we were checking out we looked up and saw a big print of their running ambassador. Under his photo, it listed his business name: Big Sexy Running. We laughed and talked the entire way to the car about how maybe we were taking ourselves too seriously. Legit Trips was born in the car ride home and has stuck with us ever since.

Kristen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m one of the co-founders of Legit Trips, a boutique group travel company. We hand-craft our small group itineraries based on our own travels and curate experiences that make you feel like a traveler, not a tourist. We support locally owned and operated businesses and ensure that the money we spend directly benefits the local economy of the places we visit. If you want to travel but your friends aren’t available when you are, we’ve got a group ready to go when you are. If you love to travel but don’t like being on tours with strangers, all of our tours are private. If you want access to unique and special experiences you could never find on your own, come with us.
We got started in the travel industry after years of being the trip planners for our friend groups. Today we’ve been in business for over seven years, and our love and passion for travel are only stronger.
We’re so proud that we’re able to help guests get their first passport stamp, or check off that bucket list trip that seemed too complicated to tackle on their own. We’re proud of the community of responsible, conscious travelers that we’ve built. We’re very committed to the local communities that we support in each destination we visit, and we’re proud to contribute in any way we can, to leave a positive imprint on each place we go.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

I was hiring for an open position on my team and had an interview with my now co-founder. Within minutes of starting the interview, we discovered that we had each lived abroad in Australia. I’m pretty sure we talked about travel the entire time, and deeply connected over how it had changed each of us. Obviously, I hired her, and we became a dynamic duo at that company. We spent years traveling all over the US for work together and eventually began taking international vacations together. After many years of traveling together and with other friends, we decided to focus on doing what we loved most and started Legit Trips together.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Existing clients. Nearly all of our growth as a company has come from word-of-mouth referrals. We focus on the customers we do have and provide them with the best experience from start to finish. We focus almost all of our energy on our existing guests, and they keep coming back and telling their friends. Of course, we still maintain a presence on social media and use that to help people learn about the brand. We sell once-in-a-lifetime trips, which is kind of a hard cold-sell on the internet, so most new customers come to us after hearing stories from their friends or family who have already traveled with us. Any brand new customers that find us on their own are greeted with a personal phone call from one of the owners, welcoming them to the family. We always want people to feel like they’re coming home, wherever they travel with us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.legittrips.com/
• Instagram: Legit_Trips
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/legittrips/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristendsargent/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErGLE_MCo9FWem_dgw5dfA