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

Samantha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?

I started my travel advisor journey in late 2019, after having a destination wedding in Mexico after not having the best experience with our advisor. I do have my Masters from Saint Louis University for Higher Education/Student Affairs so planning events, logistics, itineraries, big picture has always been a passion of mine. However, I think I am glad I did not start before 2019. With the pandemic in 2020, I spent hours and hours on the phone to cancel, rebooking, find out information on who and what as happening. What resorts were offering, what the country requirements were changing to. Policy and procedures were changing daily. I just kept thinking how lucky I was to be a new agent, and only had about 500k of sales on the books for 2020 because I was not sure how advisors with 10+ years worth of clients were handling it. I would spend 8 hours on the phone, on hold just to cancel one booking. The plus side of this, is I got a crash course on everything, and how important travel protection is for the just in case situations. In 2021, I had over 800k in sales and my son was born in June, peak travel time. I remember working in the hospital, and the nurse came in telling me I should be sleeping since my son was sleeping. But really, he came 3 weeks early so I needed to take care of some client details. I had coverage for after his due date, but not before. While in 2022 and this year, I had over 1.2 million in sales. There are so many agents, that have been in the industry much longer than me that hope to sell over 1M, where I was able to achieve that in a short time. So looking back on it, I do think I started at a great time! Would I like to have been in the industry longer, of course, but timing is everything and I am happy where I am now.

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 am an independent contractor – travel advisor. Travel with Samantha S, LLC. Crafting lasting memories for couples during such significant moments in their lives sounds incredibly rewarding. Being a part of these journeys and helping couples have a positive start to their married life is truly special.

In my role as a travel advisor, my specialization lies in curating extraordinary experiences for various occasions. One aspect I’m particularly passionate about is orchestrating destination weddings. Having had my own wedding in Mexico, I understand the intricacies involved and decided to channel that experience into assisting others in creating their dream destination weddings.
Beyond weddings, I specialize in romance travel, where I aim to craft enchanting getaways for couples. The goal is to help them build lasting memories in beautiful and romantic settings. Additionally, I find great joy in organizing family vacations, ensuring they are not only enjoyable but also stress-free for everyone involved. It’s about creating moments that families will cherish. It helps that we travel international twice a year with my son, which is now 2.5. He has 4 passport stamps already!
Honeymoons hold a special place in my heart, and I take pride in tailoring these trips to match the unique preferences of each newlywed couple. Then I help with anniversary trips or family vacations. I love that I have so many repeat clients.
All inclusive resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean play a significant role in where my clients go, but I also assist with a lot of Europe travel. Italy and Greece are such popular locations the last few years.
Although I am home based in Missouri, I have clients from all over the US. Clients find me on social media or referrals from past clients. I mail my clients a little gift before travel to get them excited so I just ran a quick report for my postage and for 2023 clients the top 5 states were Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, California. and Florida, where in 2022 it was Missouri, Illinois, California, Tennessee, and Michigan.

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

Everything for me started out with social media. Facebook primarily. More specifically Facebook groups. Being a recent bride myself I was already in a lot of groups that were wedding related. Then it turned into referrals within the groups asking for travel advisors. Now it is all repeat clients, or referrals from clients. For my local clients, it is through knowing them or from referrals from my amazing wedding vendor friends. It helps that I worked in the wedding industry for years and made some connections. Right now, I am working on romantic getaway for a client that is planning on proposal in Bora Bora. How he found me you asked? I assisted with his sister and brother in law’s honeymoon two years ago. I am also working on a 8-10 room joint bachelor/bachelorette party for Mexico. I helped craft the maid of honors honeymoon earlier this year, so she reached out asking for my help.

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

My goal when I started out in 2019 was to do travel part time in 2020 until gained clients and leave my other job as a project manager for a Photo Booth company in STL. At the time, I also had a book editing company. Well then the pandemic hit, so both of my industries were at a stand still; events and travel. When being on the phone for 8+ hours I day, I did not want to read any books in the evening so I decided to close my editing company in December of 2020 when my website was up for renewal. I had already turned away so much busy that year. I had always worked multiple jobs, even in high school. I was on unemployment for a little while, since the events was my full time job. After being on unemployment for a little while I landed a job where I got to work from home majority of the time, but did have to go to a few locations from time to time but I did not mind getting out of the house. I stayed with the company for a year, and decided not to return after I had my son. I knew if I want to focus on travel, since 2021 was going much better than 2020. I did not want to be burning the candle at both ends, especially with a new born at home. This was a huge decision to make that I did with my husband. Independent travel advisors only get paid when people book with them, and after they travel. It could be 30-90 after travel before seeing payment. I have always had multiple jobs. I liked to stay busy. So this was the first time that I had only one job that I could put all my passion and focus on, and of course being a mom too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://msha.ke/travelwithsamanthas
• Instagram: Instagram.com/travelwithsamanthas
• Facebook: facebook.com/travelwithsamanthas
• Other: TIKTOK – www.tiktok.com/@travelwithsamanthas

Image Credits
These are all my photos, no names needed.