We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Kilson-Thomas recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Stephanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
It took a lot to build KT Travel & More LLC to what it is today, and I feel we still have a long way to go!. When this became my full time job, I literally worked around the clock. I remember in 2021, I was hired for a destination wedding in South Africa. The time difference between Dallas, TX and South Africa is +7 hours, so at 1:00 am CST I was up waiting on email replies from South Africa because it was 8:00 am for them. There were a lot of late nights and early mornings trying to keep up and respond to every email, every phone call, every text message; book every reservation, make every payment, make every post on social media, and do every client consultation because I was a one woman show. I wanted badly to win and to stand out above the competition. I spent a lot of money on learning how to effectively run my business on social media from people who never owned a travel agency, but I couldn’t quit. Once I got through my first year of weddings (5 weddings in 2021), I had enough content and learned great “on the job” training to get better. I learned how to market my business better on social media, I joined travel agent communities that taught me how to be a better agent and how to successfully achieve my dreams as an entrepreneur, and before I knew it, I had 22 successful weddings in 2022, and will have completed 20 destination weddings by the end of 2023. I was able to work with a virtual assistant company to hire an assistant to step in and help when I gave birth to my second child last year; being able to afford help was the biggest scale up for my business. Having help allows me to focus on bringing in new clients to keep our doors open for the long haul.
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 Stephanie Kilson-Thomas, owner and lead Destination Wedding Matchmaker at KT Travel & More. I started KT Travel & More in 2018. It started as a side hustle and became my full time job in 2020 after losing my job during the pandemic. We are a destination wedding travel agency working with couples in the United States planning destination weddings in Mexico and the Caribbean. I have nicknamed myself the “Destination Wedding Matchmaker”, because for about 95% of my customers, I help them choose their destination and their resort for their destination wedding by presenting them with the options that will best fit their wants, needs, and budget.
Two of the biggest challenges we help couples face are destination/resort selection and logistics management. Choosing the perfect wedding destination can be overwhelming, considering factors like weather, legal requirements, and budget. KT Travel & More provides expert guidance and a curated list of destinations and resorts based on couples’ preferences, ensuring they find the ideal location for their dream wedding. Planning a wedding in a different country involves intricate logistics, such as accommodations, transportation, and venue coordination. KT Travel & More streamlines these arrangements, leveraging our experience and local network to handle all logistics efficiently.
The best part of what I do is seeing all of the fun couples and their guests have when they’re in destination for the wedding. With each wedding I am in awe when I think back on the work my team and I have done to get our couples and their guests to their destination for the big day.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
As mentioned previously, KT Travel & More became my full time career during the pandemic when I lost my job. It’s crazy to think that an industry that was heavily impacted by the pandemic saved me. In the beginning, I lost a lot of revenue due to cancelled trips, but I decided to work on my future rather than thinking about the past and the present. In 2020, I revamped my business. I partnered with bridal publications, I redid my website, and I joined travel agent communities that taught me more about the business and the destination weddings niche. I took the opportunity to travel more and meet wedding coordinators face to face to build relationships and be a better advocate for my couples. I prayed A LOT. As a result, I went from five destination weddings in 2021 to twenty-two destination weddings in 2022, and we keep increasing year over year.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
The best source of new clients for me has been social media. I’ve partnered with different brands that have reposted my couples, promotions, and information on social media that has helped me to reach a broader audience. Additionally, paid ads on social media has been a key to me reaching a broader market as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kttravelandmore.com
- Instagram: @kttravelandmore
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/kttravelandmorellc
Image Credits
Romanza Wedding Photography