We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Linda Konde a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Linda, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I’ve worked in the travel industry for a couple of years, but even before entering it, I loved travelling and always knew it would be a big part of my life. I often thought about creating a product within that space, but I, more often than not, allowed my fear to get the best of me and focused on other ideas instead.

After being made redundant in 2022, I suddenly found myself yearning to work on my idea, and I decided to create Vacay Stories, an online travel platform catering to avid travellers, particularly individuals from the African diaspora. Funny enough, I had already purchased the domain name three years before starting the company but wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with it, yet I had a feeling that it would come to use at some point.

The travel industry is, as we know, massive, and we’ve seen a lot of changes throughout the years. But I still feel like there’s more work that needs to be done to make it more inclusive. Diversity is very important to me, and I wanted to create a product to help tell stories and echo the voices of marginalised groups.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a journalist, copywriter, editor and author from Sweden, but I’ve been living in London for the past nine years. However, my journey abroad started nearly 12 years ago when I decided to swap Stockholm for sunny Los Angeles. I moved out there to pursue my studies and my dream of living in the US, and whilst attending Santa Monica College, I started writing for the school newspaper and later went on to work as a staff photographer.

After receiving my Associate of Arts degree in Journalism, I transferred to Middlesex University, where I earned my Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism&Media. I took on a few non-media jobs after graduating to gain more work experience and later landed a Commissioning Editor role at Culture Trip. That would eventually open new doors, and I have since worked with the likes of Boston Consulting Group, American Express, the Independent and Lonely Planet – I was chosen to help write their latest London guide that was published last year!

After being made redundant in May 2022, I coincidentally began working with Boston Consulting Group on a freelance basis. This gave me the flexibility to also think about and plan what I wanted to do with Vacay Stories. I knew that I wanted to take a chance on myself and try to make my idea a reality while also working on travel content, which I had missed.

So I created a product that sits within the travel space but also highlights the value of diversity and inclusion, which is an important matter to me. There’s a plethora of talent from the diaspora who may not get the opportunity to tell their stories, and I wanted to create a platform where they can be a part of this community. Furthermore, we want to uplift places that are overlooked, shine some light on their offerings and inspire others to learn more about them and their cultures.

We are a small team at Vacay Stories; we currently have seven writers located in different parts of the world, from London and Leeds to Johannesburg and Lagos, creating content based on in-house research and their accepted pitches. The goal is to grow our global community of freelancers and tell compelling stories that you would otherwise only know unless you were on the ground.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help! It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that you have to master everything yourself, but it’s also easy for tasks to start piling up if you try to do every single thing on your own. I started Vacay Stories before I was made redundant, however as the redundancy led me to a new freelance copywriter role (hello, universe!), I suddenly started feeling overwhelmed.

I quickly learned to utilise the support around me; I now have seven writers that create amazing content, and I’m in the process of hiring a social media person to help grow our social channels.

Have you ever had to pivot?

After graduating from Santa Monica College, I moved back to Stockholm, where I stayed for two years before relocating to London. During that period, I struggled to find a graduate job in my industry, which put me in a position where I picked up other roles, including a sales job. Unsure of what the next steps were going to be, I started an online lifestyle platform to keep the momentum going, which eventually helped me land a media role that would allow me to grow my portfolio as a media professional. This role was significant; it taught me how to network, and allowed me to make new contacts and unique experiences that I might never have had otherwise.

At some point, it became clear to me what I wanted to do with my life and where I wanted to live, so I set my eyes on London, started applying to universities, was accepted and began planning the next stage of my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vacaystories.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevacaystories
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vacay-stories
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/vacaystories
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/VacayStories