We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leeah Smestad. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leeah below.

Leeah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Travel has always been a love of mine, well, at least since I could pay for it myself as an adult. These were Mapquest days and internet cafes – so going on a trip felt like an adventure. Putting all the pieces together and making sure logistics were organized so that if something happened, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out a Plan B. After a few trips, I had started to play with the idea of what a travel business could look like. The internet was making a big turn and in a couple of years, Instagram would exist and change everything as we knew it regarding travel. So I’m glad I waited to start my travel business until post-COVID, however, I knew I would always end up owning my own company helping others see the world.
So, I continued to travel and at first, I traveled like so many others. I’d fit 5 countries into my 2 weeks of vacation time and see as much as I absolutely could! I’d save up my time off and do another 5-country, 2 week trip the next year. Like many other people, I’d come home saying “I need a vacation from my vacation.”
When COVID tore through the travel industry in 2020, I could not imagine how painful it would actually be to not travel. Like many others, I daydreamed daily about how soon I could get away and where I would go. Once the world did open up, I was all in on the “Revenge Travel” trend, of just blasting my way through my bucket list in case we get stuck inside for another two years.
Post-COVID, I was absolutely burnt out, like many other corporate workers I had just been worked to the bone and needed a break. At the time, my employer offered unpaid time off to do something that’s ‘once-in-a-lifetime’. So, I figured doing a 7-continent trip would qualify as a once in a lifetime event! We had so much fun planning for it and at first it looked a lot like the travels of the past – tons of countries, moving around almost daily and little time for rest. But, after a few months of planning we decided it would be best to slow down.
By doing that, I cracked the code on rejuvenating and worthwhile travel. And it had nothing to do with how much you could see or how fast you could see it – but rather how slowly you enjoyed your time in a city and got to know it’s residence. Over the course of our 4-month trip we went to family birthday parties, were invited to stay with strangers whenever we were back in their home country and heard the honest truths about living in these different countries. Learning about how hard it is to save and see a future, financially, in Argentina. Or about the real impacts of climate change in New Zealand. Everyone around the world had similar fears and concerns as we did – people just wanted the same thing: to be loved and to feel safe. You don’t really have time to experience these conversations or to sit with their meaning when you are moving hotel to hotel every other day.
Over the last decade and a half, since Instagram has made hidden gems famous and COVID instilled a fake sense of deserving to travel- the world has taken a hit and we’ve lost the plot of traveling. The goal of travel isn’t to say you’ve been there – but rather to say that you’ve been changed by being there and you can’t do that without consciously being present and engaging with your surroundings and the people.
It is so obvious that people are craving connection right now, and it’s also so hard to create in a world where everything we need is just on our phone. People asked for help on their trips and friends wanted to join us on trips – and what they were seeing us do that was different than others was simply traveling with care and respect.
What a privilege it is to get to travel. But hearing so many people say they need a vacation from their vacation, or that they went to a resort and never left or saw the city – this, this is not how we were meant to travel. We were meant to experience life in other parts of the world, to help bring us together and to see how we are all connected. Conscious travel is not a common way for people to travel and post-pandemic it is clear that our world needs it more now than ever.
It is possible to love places to death – just look at Bali’s trash epidemic or Machu Picchu closing from excess wear and protests. If we want to continue to travel the world in a way that sustains these precious communities we love to visit, then we need to do it in a much more gentle way and in a way that provides for these communities instead of just giving to us.

Newberry Travel gives people two ways to travel more consciously – either by us building your itinerary. Which is done in a way that we keep as much money possible within a community and with guidance on sustainability and social ethics of a community to be the best guests possible. Or, through small group trips – with no more than 8 people, I am joined by a local friend to the area we are visiting to show us the real side of travel and to experience it in a way that is deeper than just *travel*. It helps you see the real side of humanity when traveling, and you get to go home truly feeling relaxed and filled.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a post-corporate girlie who followed the check boxes and finally needed a break.
Growing up I was always a little quirky, thought about things differently and always cheered for the ‘little guy.’ Going to college I decided to get a degree in something that was fun and not necessarily practical – like fashion. But, while I was in school I learned about manufacturing and kind of fell in love with it. I supported factories and production for huge corporations – like Target, REI and William Sonoma.
One aspect of that job that I took very seriously were the social and sustainability aspects of manufacturing. When I would award business to a factory I knew that I was impacting the life quality of everyone that worked for that facility. I also understood the huge impact of moving business away from a factory could potentially destroy families. This was a very important part of my job, understanding that my decisions impact actual humans who are simply trying to make a life for themselves. Along with that, ensuring our practices were not harming water sources for local communities and our product wasn’t off gassing harmful chemicals for the final user.
Working in this environment, and knowing I was always rooting for the underdog, for almost 15 years my ethics and business morals essentially reach a sky high level. One that felt like no corporate job could support, in fact my boss asked me once “why do you care so much?”
While I was building my career I was also traveling, seeing the world in a different way because my corporate background forced me to. But it was on these trips that I could just hear my boss in my head asking that question – THIS is why I care so much. Because on the other side of the decisions we were making, were actual humans being able to afford housing or not. And that broke my heart that others didn’t take it more seriously. Over my time in this type of work I traveled to all 7-continents and nearly 70 countries to see the impacts that the West has had on those around the world. It takes your breath away on how much damage not caring can really do to the world.

When I finally made the decision to start a travel company, I knew that the focus would not be about me or us as the clients, but rather about those that we were going to visit. The people that were kind enough to welcome us into their cities and homes.
I am incredibly proud of how strongly my passion for caring for others has translated into my business. I am proud that I can ‘care so much’ about every decision I make, knowing it is impacting the lives of people. I can now make my own rulebook for my company and I get to make decisions based on what is best for the location we are visiting and it is incredibly freeing and exciting!
Travel is fun and silly and stressful and overwhelming. It has so much good but can do incredible harm. Taking on the travel industry is not a light task, nor do I think of it as something I can do on my own. But I am incredibly proud to be one business making steps to change the travel industry into a more giving, caring and curious industry.

I want future clients, followers and fans to know that Newberry Travel is really not just another travel company. No no, we are challenging corporate hotels, we are challenging 3rd party platforms that take profits from small business owners. We are challenging all of it because we as travelers and the communities we get the honor of visiting deserve to experience so much more!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media, oy vey.
In modern times it’s everyone’s goal to go viral and end up making millions on Instagram – yeah? Yeah. It was mine too. But starting the Newberry Travel account from zero was incredibly overwhelming.
I listened to podcasts, I followed huge accounts with tips and tricks, I followed the trends and did silly lip syncing videos and slowly I grew. At first by other travel agents or hotels – which was a great way to continue to stay inspired when I logged on each day.
Eventually though, I invested. I invested in myself and my business and joined a 3-month container to focus on social media. Investing in this I learned how to properly talk to my audience, how to convey a heartfelt message of what you’re feeling isn’t how it always has to be. I continued to refine my mission and my goals and stopped doing as many silly dances. But instead, I focused on educational information. I taught people about leakage rates and revenge travel and have been educating them on Conscious Travel in a way that feels natural to me.
And then one day it happened, I went viral! I had made a post about very timely and helpful things for travelers. People ate it up! And it taught me that although people LOVE looking at gorgeous pictures of beaches and hearing about new locations – what they ultimately want to be shown is how their life can be easier and how you can help.
Has this happened everyday since? Absolutely not. But, I learned that yes the fun content can tell a story and show your personality, if you really want to make an impact you need to bring timely value that your audience can relate to. It’s about giving.

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

The best source of new clients in the travel industry has been word of mouth. I’ve invested thousands of dollars into social media and have pitched so many brands – but nothing has helped as much as just being really good at what I do and others sharing that with their friends.
There are so many posts on IG about free ways to support your favorite businesses – by just sharing their posts or reposting with your thoughts, it means so much to small business owners and we do a little happy dance every time it happens!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.newberrytravel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newberrytravel/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeah-smestad-4444054b/
• Other: Coming soon: Season 2 of my podcast, updated title of “Do you even want me here?”

  https://open.spotify.com/show/1BLe5vZWxqhtRsQej3izSd?si=64a0ac19ebbd4ab9

Image Credits

Jennifer at Arrows Photography for the headshot